Sunday Homilies : Capital punishment abolished in Illinois

from Father Kevin Laughery, Troy St. Jerome and St. Jacob St. James Parishes, Diocese of Springfield in Illinois. Note: Comments from this page do not reach me; instead, email: kl@kevinlaughery.com

The Podcasts

I'm afraid I did not make a recording of the Ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time homily.  I waited until the Young Adult Mass (Sunday at 8 pm) and then discovered the dead battery.

It has always been my conviction that it is unnecessary and morally questionable to apply capital punishment.  Catholic social teaching, while holding that in principle a body of civil society has the right to exact the ultimate sanction, affirms that the circumscribed situations in which the death penalty would be called for do not exist in society today.  We in Illinois can be proud of joining a number of U.S. states and many, many countries in affirming that alternatives to capital punishment are called for by a developing morality which looks beyond vengeance in applying sanctions.

Category:general -- posted at: 1:34pm CDT