Here are two pertinent quotes you might use in your preaching if you decide to include the death penalty in your preaching. Certainly the teaching on Jesus love for us in today s Gospel, makes such a preaching a possibility. Even a murderer is not exempt from Jesus love. Human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself without denying criminals the chance to reform.
Victim families have every right to the normal, valid human response of rage and hatred.
However, to legislate that same gut-level desire for bloodthirsty revenge will have the same deleterious effect on the community as it does on individuals. It degrades, dehumanizes, and debilitates us as a society. The capacity for mercy and compassion is what sets us apart from the rest of creation. Our laws should call us to higher moral principles than the practice of primitive acts of more murders to resolve our conflicts, hatreds, fears and frustrations. We become that which we deplore people who kill people as insult to the memory of our beloved victims.