Empower us to erase the hatred and violence that continue to scourge people and creation. On the heels of the Timothy McVeigh verdict, a local radio station set up a kind of drive-by jury a few miles from Denver's federal courthouse. By the end of Wednesday, June 4, more than 24,000 Coloradans had done so. Let's overlook, for a moment, the circus-like indignity this brought to a moment of almost unbearable remembering for those who lost family and friends in the Oklahoma City bombing. And so do most Catholics.
Decent people are understandably tired of the violence in society.
They need to defend their children and themselves. They want a deterrent. And even when the deterrent might fail, goes the reasoning, at least it can bring justice and emotional closure for the relatives of murder victims. These are powerful arguments, especially today, as we grapple with vivid and terrible memories of the bombing. But they are wrong.