Prayer for Martin Linch and Elissa Self-Braun

The Missouri Catholic Conference has the following posted on their website:

This week, religious leaders of the state, including the Catholic bishops, submitted a clemency application to Gov. Jay Nixon on behalf of Martin Link, who is scheduled to be executed on Feb. 9 for the murder of Elissa Self-Braun.  The religious leaders noted their opposition to capital punishment because it disregards the sanctity and dignity of human life. 

Link's attorneys still have two motions before the federal western district court.  One motion is based on the Ringo litigation of lethal injection and the new protocol.  The other motion asks for a stay to determine a neutral decision maker in clemency.  It could be Monday before the court rules on these motions. 

Vigils are being held for the families of Martin Link and Elissa Self-Braun in Savannah, Springfield, Jefferson City, Kansas City, Cape Girardeau, St. Louis and Columbia. 

The vigil in our county will be at the Cape County Courthouse in Jackson at 7p.m. on Tuesday.  Please call Gov. Nixon's office at 573-751-3222 to request that he commute Link's sentence from execution to life in prison. 

Catechism of the Catholic Church #2267 says:

Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm—without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself—the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent."

To read more of the Catechism on this issue click here.

Also, in 2006, the bishops of the Missouri Catholic Conference published a statement which can be read in full here.  Here are some excerpts:

Catholic teaching begins with the recognition that the dignity of the human person applies to both victims and offenders.  It affirms our commitment to comfort and support victims and their families, while acknowledging the God-given dignity of every human life, even those who do great harm. For some left behind, a death sentence offers the illusion of closure and vindication; but no act, even an execution, can bring back a loved one or heal terrible wounds.  The pain and loss of one death cannot be wiped away by another death...

...In his Encyclical Letter, The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II told us that we have the "inescapable responsibility of choosing to be unconditionally pro-life."  Our efforts to end the use of the death penalty in our state help us to reject the culture of death and to build a culture of life.  May we always remember the imperative which our Lord Himself gives us in Deuteronomy 30:19:  "I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live."