THE POPE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

In this morning's New York Times, Helen Prejean has a piece about John Paul II's position on capital punishment.  For an extended defense of the Prejean interpretation of the Pope's position, see E. Christian Brugger, Capital Punishment and the Roman Catholic Moral Tradition (Notre Dame 2003).  As Brugger points out, however, the Pope's position is more radical than the Church's "official" position, in spite of what Sister Prejean says.  To read Sister Prejean's entire piece ("Above All Else, Life"), click here.  An excerpt follows:

Of the many great legacies of Pope John Paul II, the one I prize the most is this:  He was instrumental in helping the Catholic Church reach a position of principled opposition to the death penalty - an opposition that brooks no exceptions. . . .   [I]n 1999[,] when the pope visited St. Louis, he uttered words of opposition to the death penalty that could not have been more uncompromising: 

"A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil."

For this statement, and for his leadership, I am forever grateful. Thank you, Pope John Paul. Because of you, the Catholic Church can at last stand alongside those human rights groups that oppose, unequivocally, government killing.