To the editor:

Andy Gonzales’ column on the death penalty in Wednesday’s Daily needs a reply.

First, it is inappropriate and wrong to use Pope John Paul II to justify capital punishment.

Pope John Paul II and innumerable other religious leaders throughout the world have called for a moratorium on executions.

In fact, Pope John Paul has many times made specific appeals to governors to commute death sentences, including, I believe, Governor Bush.

In his letter “The Gospel of Life,” Pope John Paul II does not say that executions can be justified to save lives by defending society. His exact quote is:

“The nature and extent of the punishment mist be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not to go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: In other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society.

Today, however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are rare if not practically nonexistent.”

According to the pope, the death penalty ÿcan seldom, if ever, be justified.

Secondly, it is difficult to see that Jesus Christ would justify the death penalty. When the woman caught in adultery was brought to him, he prevented an execution by noting that “Whoever was without sin should cast the first stone.”

Even the passage he refers to (Matthew 26:52—”Whoever lives by the sword will die by the sword”) does not necessarily justify capital punishment.

It is, in fact, the text that Christian pacifists have often used to justify conscientious objection to all war! Mr. Gonzales is making an interpretative leap that the text does not justify.

I also believe he caricatures the position of many opponents of the death penalty. Many do not say that there should be no punishment.

A commutation of sentence does not necessarily release a prisoner.

Iowa does not have the death penalty, but its penal code allows for the penultimate punishment of life without parole.

Furthermore, many advocates of the abolition of the death penalty also see the need to respond to the families of victims.

Finally, ÿI believe that our nation’sÿacceptance of the death penalty is largely due to a frustration many experience in the face of violence.

It seems to be a quick fix to a much more difficult problem. We need to face the real problems of violence, crime, and poverty in our society.

John Donaghy

Lay campus ministerÿ

St. Thomas Aquinas Church and Catholic Student Center