LET'S SAY "NO" TO DEATH PENALTY

"God does not want the sinner to die.
He wants the sinner to be converted
and live".

Back since the times of Caín and his myth, up to our times, men and women have walked along the dangerous path of violence. However, they must be as brothers and sisters and live together as such. Violence intends to do justice by itself and pass over the fellow-men due to envy or great meanness or due to blind revenge which has brought about the prevalence of the ancient principle of the Law of Talion: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth", in the conciousness and minds of many persons.
It is what we call "the culture of death". That is: physical, psychic, moral, working and spiritual destruction of fellow-men is cultivated because the other men are a menace(real or imaginary) to us, to society, to politics or even to religion.
This mental attitude and acting have prevalied throughout centuries. We can hardly find persons who don't stand for death penalty. It's like an instinct, or a way that men have found to say to other men and to society that they must not carry out the serious crimes which would lead them to death penalty.
But this mental attitude is changing all over the world.The late 20th century and the early 21th century have brought a brighter and more civilized conciousness to humanity and it increasingly tends to be doubtful about the effectiveness of death penalty. The live forces, which represent the most progressive thought and acting in the present world, are asking, demanding and attaining in the majority of the countries, the total abolishment of death penalty, or at least, its adjourning or a partial or total moratory.
In fact, at present, more than a half of the countries in the world have abolished death penalty. Out of the 195 countries officially recognized, up to the moment, there are 109 nations which have eliminated this kind of capital punishment, in fact or in right. Out of these 109 states, about 30 have resigned to death penalty during the last decade. There is an increasing number of countries that have decreed a moratory or an adjourning so that, although they still maintain this kind of penalty in their legislative arsenal, they haven't implemented it for decades, only in extreme cases; or they implement it in times of crisis, and in such ocassions it has to be decreed as an emergency by the legislative power.
The 15 countries that belong to the European Union have definitely abolished death penalty. Out of the 43 States which are members of the Council of Europe, 39 have ratified the Protocol number 6 of the European Convention of Human Rights that stipulates the abolishment of death penalty in times of peace. Other three states have signed it but they have not ratified it: Armenia, Azerbaidyan and Russia. According to "International Amnisty" statistics, an average of three countries erradicate death penalty for all crimes ever year.
However, there are still 86 countries that maintain and implement death penalty. They are mostly from Africa, Asia and the Middle East. During the year 2000, 1457 persons were executed. The 88% of the executions were carried out by only four countries: China, Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United States. One thousand of these executions were accomplished in China.
A lot of research and study has been made by almost all nationalities, ideologies and creeds and they are unfolding the fact that, every excuse to implement death penalty is but tradition, prejudice, or simply remaining characterictics of civilizations which have not evolved and have very primitive ways of understanding justice, citizen security, the punishing character of the State or the very religion.
We could say that what is left of those mentalities and cultures
is just the most brutal characteristics which don't know about
the very human nature, about the psychology of persons and the educative and preventive methods of social crime. Such characteristics reflect a kind of living together which believes that the only way to safegard society was by eliminating and erradicating the member qualified as "bad".
Today we know that it's not like this. Present society and States which have the responsibility to maintain citizen order and care about sane living together, are the ones that have the necessary means and resources to confine criminals without eliminating them, thus protecting the common good.
The Church itself, for centuries has sustained the legitimity of death penalty in case of extreme necessity. The church didn't allow the priests to contribute directly to death penalty, but the very church appealed to the justice of the civil tribunal that was called "secular arm" with the purpose of implementing such penalty in the extreme cases. Inquisition is the sign of this behavior and of an age that have been definetely overcome. During the year 2000 the very Pope John Paul II solemnly asked for forgiveness because "during some epochs of history the christians have used methods of intolerance and haven't followed the commandment of love, thus distorting te face of the church".
The official text of Catechism in the catholic church support the right of society and persons to self defence against the

ones who attacks them and put their existence in danger, but catechism ends this topic with two clear and unresignable explanations:

The first and fundamental: "human life is sacred, because from its very beginning, it is the result of God's creative work, because it always remains in close relationship with the Creator, its only purpose. Only God is Master of life from its beginning to its end; no one, under any circumstance, can apropiate of the right to kill an innocent human being through direct methods". (Catholic Church Catechism article 5 number 2258)

The second, addresses the guilty ones: "If the non-cruel methods are enough to defend human lives against the aggressor and to protect public order from this aggressor, and to protect the security of persons, in such cases, the authority will use only those methods because they respond better to the conditions of common good and to the dignity of the human person". (CCC art. 5, number 2267)
The Pope John Paul II has become one of the first supportersof the total obolishment of death penalty. In order to save historic memory which means to learn from past mistakes, he has asked for forgiveness because of the very sins of the sons of the church and he has granted forgiveness to others in order to save the present with an acting more in correspondance to dignity and human beings' rights.
To start by home, and to give the example, the State of the Vatican City ratified the ebolishment of death penalty when its new Constitution was drafted and it was established as "constitutional precept". Death penalty had been already abolished by John Paul II in the 70's.
The church has openly declared its stand against all ways of violence other than death penalty, which is the highest attack to physical, psychic and moral integrity of the convicted person. Those other ways of violence are: terrorism, physical and psychological torture, kidnappings, assaults, sabotages, wars and guerrillas with political and ideological purposes, mutilations under judicial pretexts, and other ways of cruelty
towards innocent or guilty ones although the executers are sure they are defending a just cause through these ruthless means.

Here is the present stand:
"In recent times it has become evident that these severe practices were not necessary for public order and were not according to the legitimate rights of the human person. On the contrary, these practices lead to the worst degradation. It is compulsory to strive for abolish them and pray for the victims and their hangmen" (CCC art. 5 number 2298)
In Cuba, the death penalty and other ways of physical or psychological torture have been present throughout its history.
Depending on education, idiosyncrasy of many and on the efficiency of the State to garantee citizen peace, interior order and the state own security, death penalty should be abolished again from our legislation and from all legislations in the world. And that should be done BECAUSE:

-God is the only Master of life and only Him can give it or take it away from us.
-Death penalty is against the supreme gift and the first and fundamental right: the right to live.
-The dignity of the human person, even of the criminal, should be above the colective, political, ideological, religious and other interests and the life and physical intergrity of the person cannot be subordinated, by force or by law, even to the social good.
-Death penalty is the legal establishment of one way of violence.
-Death penalty judicially legitimates the old and absurd saying that states "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth".
-When a criminal excludes himself from society by committing a crime that deserves death penalty, not even himself has the right to take away from him the supreme right to life. No tribunal should use this excuse that is close to the suicidal reasoning, and in the same way as suicidal reasoning, that excuse or pretext in ethically unacceptable.
-According to the most recent official statistics, death penalty, in any part of the world, is not able to stop, by itself, either violence or criminal behavior, or even murder. Crime increases in some countries that maintain death penalty and some times this crime decreases in the countries that abolish it.
-Death penalty can be then inefficient to protect and defend society from crimes. Much less is death penalty ethically legitimate just as exemplifying measure because by doing that, we are taking life away in order to attain a purpose. The fact that the purpose is good doesn't give legitimity to the cruel procedure.
-At present, the states use other methods in order to prevent crime, defend society from its misleaded members and educate the citizens for order and peace. These methods are much more efficient than death penalty.
-There is a possibility of error (which is human), in tribunals that bestow punishments, and the price for this error is the supreme and universal value which is "life". And this mistake cannot be ammended.
-The conciousness of the world and of many persons has grown in defense of human life from its conception to its natural ending.
-Death penalty,which the states try to impose to citizens to convince them not to commit crimes is similar to the policy that the powerful impose to the world through the arms race, the anti-missile shield and other analogous initiatives which they dangerously use as laws. It's like the old and violent axiom: "if you want peace, prepare yourself for war".
-The ones who support death penalty don't do it because they
want to punish. They do it more because they are afraid of crimes, and because they need personal and social security.
-In short, the capital penalty only substantiates the interior order that resembles death and graveyard peace.

Because of all that, lets say NO to death penalty. Let's say NO to torture, to terrorism and all the other ways of pressure and cruelty which confer violence to human rights and the freedom of peoples. At the same time, let's say NO to abortion and Euthanasia. But we should not only deny. Let's say YES to a dignified and peaceful existence.
Along the path between the utopia of a perfect society and the reality of a society which carries violence and death within it, we know there are possible ways, short steps such as the abolishment of capital penalty. Other civilized countries have made those short steps and they have obtained fruits of life and peace.
The civic education of citizens, the increasing of overall education, a clear, stable and preventive legislation, and a penitenciary regime based on re-education and re-insertion of convicts and not in revenge and punishments; these are urgent and possible measures to implement in order to protect society from crime, in order to break the chains of hatred and violence that make rencor increase. These measures garantee the duty of the state to create a climate of tolerance and respect for everyone, an interior order based on law, not in fear, in order to achieve, all together, a healthy and pacific cohabitation.

Pinar del Río, September 8th,2001
Solemnity of Our Lady of "Caridad del Cobre", Patroness of
Cuba.

TODAY'S WORDS: "I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted and evey hill and mountain shall be made low; the rough places will be made plain and the crooked places will be made straight...and with this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope". Martin Luther King.