It is sometimes easy to understand why so many Americans speak in favor of capital punishment. All of the people condemned to death in the United States are murders. These people have committed horrible crimes. But as a Roman Catholic, I understand that I should not use my anger at the crime of murder, to excuse the murder of another human being. Just because someone in prison has killed another person does not give me the moral right to kill the prisoner. Only God can judge the souls of human beings, and take and give life. The fact that someone has committed an evil action, even a mortal sin like murder, does not give me the right to commit a mortal sin in return, against the criminal. Even for sinners there is always the hope of redemption and I must realize, as a Roman Catholic, that it is better to let a condemned murderer to live, in the hopes that he or she will repent what he or she has done, and be forgiven by God, rather than to be condemned to death with possibly no hope of forgiveness and redemption for all eternity.

             Some people might argue that capital punishment is morally justified because it simply is a version of the Biblical morality of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." In other words, if someone takes a life, the murderer should give his or her own life in return, and be condemned to die. But this old philosophy from the Bible was replaced by the forgiveness of Jesus, Jesus said to turn the other cheek, when one is hit by a blow, rather than lashing out at one's enemy, and asked God to forgive the people who condemned Him, because they did not know what they were doing. It is tempting to feel anger or wrath against murder, but the sins of other people do not allow you to commit a sin, and Catholics especially must imitate the forgiveness of Jesus as best they can and leave judgment to God.