Anthony Gomes

The strident call for the abolition of capital punishment by Roman Catholic Deacon Peter Espeut harmonises with a similar position taken by the Caribbean Roman Catholic Bishops in their pastoral letter of December 2003.

Deacon Espeut lists a number of countries that have abolished the death penalty prompting him to comment in his Gleaner article: "As the world becomes more civilised, the drive to kill declines." This observation is certainly not borne out in Jamaica today. Has the world become more civilised?
It is suggested the opposite is more accurate given the large number of armed conflicts in progress since World War II, of which some are significant wars conducted on the grounds of ethnic cleansing, racial discrimination, tribal and religious beliefs.

Terrorism and guerrilla warfare have replaced the more orthodox belligerent engagements of the past. The Geneva Convention that protects combatants from inhumane forms of torture and execution is now ignored with the advent of on-camera beheading and throat-cutting of innocent civilians, massacres in Rwanda, Kosovo, Congo, Darfur, Uganda, Afghanistan and, of course, Iraq. The list is not exhaustive.

Rev Al Miller's church referred to in the article as "his own brand of Christianity" is what Archbishop Lawrence Burke calls, "Generic Christianity" which is claiming more and more adherents that have defected from the traditional Christian religions. The Roman Catholic minority in Jamaica has declined from five per cent to three per cent, according to a leading church official.

On the other hand, there has been a surge of new converts to Islam and other oriental religions as reported in the media over time. Avenging fanatics excluded, the militancy of the eastern religions, defending their beliefs and challenging the materialistic western lifestyle has largely been the rallying point for such conversions. The late Pope John Paul II in a statement on the affluent society spoke of "the scandal of the affluent society of today's world in which the rich grow even richer, since wealth produces wealth, and the poor grow even poorer". A secondary attraction is the unified traditional approach to the practice of their liturgy. Similar motivation could also account for fundamentalist Jamaican Christians abiding by the Old Testament.

The moral, legal and ethical liberalisation regarding issues such as abortion, contraception, euthanasia, polygamy, homosexuality, drug abuse (including capital punishment), all in the cause of democratic freedom, has served to launch western civilisation down the slippery slope to Greco-Roman style decadence.

Israel, "guardians of the Old Covenant", has abolished the death penalty. However, their military regularly execute Palestinian militants under the principle of national self-defence. Whether Israel's cause is considered just or not, the state reserves the right to execute aggressors who attack their citizens. The death penalty has therefore become redundant.

The formidable list of countries that have abandoned capital punishment included in the article gives the impression that "one shoe fits all". In matters such as the suitability of capital punishment to serve the interests of a particular society like Jamaica, other relevant factors must be considered. These include the national culture, the effectiveness of law enforcement, the educational and economic environment, also the degree of corruption in the society, and last but not least, the will of the citizens who populate this sovereign Christian state. It should be obvious from the mood of the people that whichever party proposes the abolition of the death penalty will be committing political suicide.

Since time immemorial, the death penalty has been a part of Christian teaching and is stated in the Roman Catholic Catechism under item 2266 as follows: "It is the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty." Item 2266 is certainly relevant in the case of the heinous killing of the two Brothers of the Missionaries of the Poor who were deeply immersed in God's work. It is understood that "to err is human but to forgive is Divine".
Humankind, however, while made in the image of the Creator, consists of individual souls each with their own characteristics. In some cases the quality of Divine forgiveness is beyond their capacity, but they remain strong defenders of the Faith.

Finally, the article's reference to the death penalty being related to one's political persuasion is unclear. For the rest, his writings in defence of Christian morality and the Roman Catholic faith are to be commended.

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