| The Death Penalty in Our Time
Address to Criminal Law Committee
Criminal Court of Cook County
Joseph Cardinal Bernardin
May 14, 198
I wish to acknowledge with
gratitude your considerable contribution to the quality
of life among the people of Cook County as you preserve
the value of justice and implement it each day. The
court system is an indispensable part of our great
American heritage of "justice for all under the
law." I am aware that your dedicated work involves
considerable frustration as you constantly encounter
the seamier side of human behavior.
I am grateful for your invitation to meet with you
this afternoon and to share my reflections on an issue
of mutual concern: capital punishment. I come before
you as a pastor—not a legal expert. It is my understanding
that the constitutional principle of the separation
of Church and State ensures religious organizations
the right to engage in debate about public policy,
expecting neither favoritism nor discrimination. At
the same time, I firmly believe that they must earn
the right to be heard by the quality of their arguments.
It has also been my longstanding conviction that
civil law and social policy must always be subject
to ongoing moral analysis. Simply because a civil
law is in place does not mean it should be blindly
supported. Encouraging reflective, informed assessment
of civil law and policy keeps alive the capacity for
moral criticism in society.
I also come before you as a citizen who cares deeply
about the quality of life in our community.
I will address two dimensions of the topic this afternoon.
First, I will situate the issue of capital punishment
in the context of a consistent ethic of life and then
examine the case for capital punishment in light of
this ethic.
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