Letter to the editor: If we respect life, we must end death penalty

On April 29, Richard Bernard Moore, a man on South Carolina’s death row, will be executed by firing squad. That’s right. Firing squad! As an ordained Roman Catholic deacon, serving as a chaplain to our incarcerated sisters and brothers in the Diocese of Pittsburgh, I most strongly urge my fellow Christians, people of faith and other pro-life advocates to petition South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster to put an immediate halt to this barbaric execution.

St. John Paul II clearly stated in “Evangelium Vitae” (“The Gospel of Life”): “The dignity of 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 definitively denying criminals the chance to reform.”

Pope Francis recently updated Catholic teaching on the death penalty, stating that, “In light of the teachings of Christ, this deliberate taking of life is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the human person.”

On a daily basis, within my ministry, I witness God’s powerful grace redeem the lives of men and women whom society judges as unredeemable — even individuals who have committed the most heinous crimes. Cries to “respect life” and that “all lives matter” ring hollow in the face of a society that sanctions and facilitates the taking of life — any life!

Keith Kondrich

Swisshelm Park