Recently, Sister Helen Prejean, best known for her activism to end the death penalty, spoke at Creighton.

She mentioned the necessity for Catholics to fight against capital punishment and described Pope John Paul II’s condemnation of the death penalty as part of the culture of death during his 1999 visit to St. Louis as the Catholic Church’s final condemnation of capital punishment.

Sister Prejean’s lecture was well-attended by students and local supporters. Sadly, her message is falling on deaf ears nationally. American Catholic politicians of both parties, including those as diverse as Joe Biden and Rick Santorum, have voted in favor of keeping capital punishment.

However, perhaps the most influential American Catholic to publically advocate the death penalty is Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia.

Part of the reason why they consistently support the death penalty is their age. The Church has vocally protested against it only fairly recently.

Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, the late archbishop of Chicago, developed the idea of the consistent life ethic, which ties capital punishment to phenomena long condemned by the Church, such as abortion and unjust war, only in 1983. John Paul II’s encyclical “Evangelium Vitae,” which claimed that the death penalty is an anachronism, was published in 1995. And Sister Prejean’s book “Dead Man Walking” came out in 1993.

Thus it is clear that the Church’s movement against the death penalty is too recent. Several centuries ago, St. Thomas Aquinas argued in favor of it.

Yet the world has changed. In liberal democracies it is possible to maintain effectively trying criminals without killing them.

However, as Catholic politicians, men like Joe Biden and Rick Santorum can’t confine their faith to the private sphere. They are called to defend the dignity of all human life at all stages.

The United States is virtually alone among democracies in maintaining the death penalty. The only European nation that executes criminals is Belarus, which is a Communist dictatorship. Meanwhile, by maintaining the death penalty, the United States joins the ranks of such unsavory regimes as Iran and China.

As the world’s first modern liberal democracy, the United States should set an example for other free nations rather than be criticized for maintaining such a cruel and outdated practice.

I believe that the Church’s opposition to capital punishment stems from its conviction that all people are capable of atoning for their sins and being converted.

Before his conversion, St. Paul of Tarsus initially persecuted Christians and was co-responsible for the death of St. Stephen. Meanwhile, St. Augustine was famous for his sexual promiscuity. Yet both men are among the most famous saints in Church history.

In the Catholic view, all people are capable of evil because of original sin. Yet at the same time they are capable of attaining holiness.

Perhaps as important is the fact that the legal system is not flawless. Judges frequently make mistakes. Thus keeping the death penalty makes it possible for innocents to be executed for crimes they didn’t commit.

Abolishing the death penalty is necessary for America to maintain her position as a model for democracies around the world. Relgious institutions can play a crucial role in ending capital punishment.

There are many things that American Catholics can do to fight against the death penalty. They can start by writing to Catholic Congresspeople and reminding them of their Church’s teaching on the issue.