Nebraska Death Penalty

While I believe your article on this subject (“Neb. Won't Halt Death Penalty,” Register, June 13–19) was very well balanced, I believe that it still needs to be reiterated that it is not against Catholic teaching nor hypocritical for a Catholic to believe that the limited use of the death penalty may be necessary.

This has always been the teaching of the Church, and the Baltimore Catechism No. 3 brings this out even more clearly: “The life of another person may lawfully be taken … by a duly appointed executioner of the state when he metes out a just punishment for a crime.” In other words, according to Catholic moral theology, each and every instance of the prospective use of capital punishment must be evaluated on its own merits.

Hence, it is incorrect to state (as many do) that capital punishment is against Church teaching. The more unjust a society becomes, the more likely that capital punishment is not being used fairly and justly. A Catholic in good conscience, and without disobedience to the Church, can believe in the state's right to capital punishment.

Finally, (and you hit upon this, but I believe it needs to be reinforced) equating capital punishment to abortion, despite Cardinal Bernardin's “seamless garment” approach, is not valid. Abortion is always and in all circumstances inherently evil because innocent life is always being taken. Capital punishment may be evil and unjust in certain cases, but is never inherently evil because the life that is deprived is not innocent.

Brian Mershon Taylors, South Carolina

The Heart of Jesus

Father Peter Stravinskas does not think there will be a Feast of Divine Mercy because “generally private devotions are not formally institutionalized by the Church” (“The Fire of Divine Mercy Is Spreading,” Register, April 11–17). This is not always the case. Devotion to Divine Mercy is more than just a private devotion, but a timely, valid and widely spread development of the ancient devotion to the Heart of Jesus. There are other examples of devotions or private revelations that have become Feasts: Corpus Christi from visions to Juliana of Retinnes (1192–1258) and the Sacred Heart from the apparitions to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque (1647–90).

Second, Father Benedict Groeschel (“Sacred Heart Devotion Is Making a Comeback,” Register, June 6–12) traces devotion to the Sacred Heart “back to the 2nd century.”

Devotion to the Heart of Jesus actually is rooted in the New Testament. The Johannine community manifests exceptional reverence for the Heart of Jesus as seen in a number of explicit passages, as well as the important themes of love and unity. It is John that gave the Church the rich theology of the Holy Spirit, the Eucharist and Mary — all farewell gifts of the Heart of Jesus.

Sister Mary Jeremiah, OP Monastery of the Infant Jesus

Lukfin, Texas