Bishop Duca Advocates for Bills

Bishop Michael G. Duca joined Sister Helen Prejean CSJ and statewide interfaith leaders in the state Capitol on April 5 to advocate for anti-capital punishment bills that have been introduced in both chambers of the Louisiana Legislature.

Also in attendance during a brief press conference in the Capitol lobby were Sen. Kristina Jackson and Rep. Kyle Green Jr., who have each introduced bills in their separate chambers to abolish the death penalty. 

Bishop Duca said that himself, along with the Louisiana bishops, interfaith leaders and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have all spoken out against capital punishment, which he called “an assault against the dignity of life.” 

“We speak about it from a deeply religious point of  view,” Bishop Duca said. “The message of Christ is to forgive and do not take away any opportunity a person has for conversion, for change, for renewal, for their eternal reward.”

Bishop Duca said the ultimate desire is for the person (potentially facing the death penalty) to come to the Lord and ask for forgiveness. 

“I think we cannot take that opportunity away from them,” he said. “We rob them of their dignity and also we buy into the culture of death. That is the cycle of violence. When one kills again, we kill again.

“That demeans us. We have to rise up against that. Jesus calls us to embrace the kind of love that he has.”

The bishop acknowledged the difficulty the victims and families of violence face and said they need support and care. But he added that “we need to rise up above that to a deeper kind of healing that comes with love.”

He said capital punishment is holding onto something that does not mean anything and noted a new energy must be found, an energy believing people can reach out to others before they reach a point (where they might go into the criminal lifestyle), help with education and the circumstances of others.

“That’s positive, that’s the Gospel of life, not the gospel of death that just goes to killing another human being,” Bishop Duca said. 

He said the one sign that trumps everything in the Bible is Jesus on the cross, which he deemed “the most unjust death in the world. And Jesus says ‘Forgive them for they do not know what they are doing.’

“That really is what love is. So we stand starkly against the death penalty.” 

Sister Helen noted an inmate in Louisiana has not been put to death since 2010. A major reason for the void in executions is a lawsuit dating to 2012 challenging the state’s lethal injection procedures. 

Additionally a trend has developed in the past few years with some pharmaceutical companies not wanting their products associated with their use in lethal injections. 

Anti-capital punishment advocates admit zealous opposition remains, despite the fact progress has been made in recent years. Two dozen clergy representing Catholic and Protestant churches spoke on the steps of the Capitol in 2019 endorsing similar legislation but it did not get out of the House.

In 2017 Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre, then bishop of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux, testified before a Senate judiciary committee hoping to gather support for anti-capital punishment legislation. 

Pope Francis has also been a vocal critic of capital punishment throughout his papacy, creating a dilemma for Catholic politicians who continue to be pro-capital punishment. 

On March 28, the Louisiana Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement reiterating its opposition to capital punishment. The statement also pointed out Louisiana leads the nation per capita in wrongful death sentences. 

LCCB Executive Director Tom Costanza said he is optimistic about passage of the legislation but said “who knows?”

Said Bishop Duca at the April 5 press conference: “Let’s pray we can move (the anti-death penalty legislation) forward this year.”