Southern Connecticut Newspapers

Area Catholics sign anti-death penalty petition

By Joy L. Woodson - January 17, 2005
  Catholics in Stamford and Norwalk joined thousands more across the state in a petition drive to halt the death penalty, saying the punishment is vengeful and ineffective.

In a letter read aloud to parishioners Jan. 9, Bishop William Lori of the Diocese of Bridgeport urged Catholics to sign the petition, which was collected after Masses yesterday.

The petition will be presented to the General Assembly before Jan. 26, the execution date for convicted serial killer Michael Ross.

Backed by the diocese, the Connecticut Catholic Conference developed the petition to try to stop the execution of Ross, 45, who is scheduled to die by lethal injection for killing eight women in Connecticut and New York in the 1980s. His death would be the first execution in New England in 45 years.

"I think to put someone into the grave is not necessarily helping them nor necessarily giving back to society," said the Rev. Michael Boccaccio, pastor at St. Philip Church in Norwalk. "I think that a criminal should give back to society."

Prisons do not generally rehabilitate people to return to society successfully, and capital punishment doesn't protect innocent people from criminals, he said. Jesus taught that vengeance is his, not ours, Boccaccio said.

"I think that's what prompts the death penalty -- vengeance," he said. "Violence breeds violence."

But Gerald Bradley of Stamford, who attended Mass at St. John the Evangelist Church in downtown Stamford, said there are cases in which the death penalty is warranted. Child abusers or sexual predators shouldn't be walking the streets, he said.

"I see no problem with having that as a solution for such a heinous crime such as that," Bradley said. "I have mixed feelings about the death penalty. I don't believe in eye for an eye but, in some cases, where do you draw the line?"

By 11 a.m. about 60 people had signed the petition at St. John's. Some think the death penalty, like abortion, violates the Catholic church's respect for human life.

While the church takes a stand on respect for life, it "is very clear that it doesn't condemn capital punishment or condone it," said the Rev. Stephen DiGiovanni, pastor at St. John's. "It's the right of a state to exercise protection of its citizens."

Still, DiGiovanni said he planned to sign the petition, though he doesn't know what the response will be.

Boccaccio said the petition won't do much.

"I think the Catholic Church in general in the last several years has lost some respectability because of our own issues," the Norwalk priest said, alluding to the sex scandals that have rocked the church. "We have so many skeletons in our closets. For us to stand up and righteously say, this is how you should act, it really kind of brings up the question of credibility."

Last week, religious leaders, including Catholics, called on state legislators to abolish the death penalty despite a Quinnipiac University poll last week that showed 70 percent of Connecticut voters support Ross' execution.

According to the telephone poll, 59 percent of voters said they support the death penalty, though more make an exception and support it in Ross' case.

But Suzanne Dwan, a parishioner at St. Philip's in Norwalk, is not deterred. She works for the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Wilton, a group that has helped stopped a number of executions nationwide. Getting the word out against the death penalty is her duty, Dwan said.

"I think we have to keep trying up until the end," she said. "I think God's will will be done one way or another."

Wanda Lasko of Stamford, an attorney, said she signed the petition because minorities are disproportionally represented on death row and innocent people are convicted.

"Sometimes people are beyond rehabilitation and . . . they just need to be institutionalized for the rest of their lives," she said. "But killing doesn't bring people back."

Valerie Duffey, 37, of Norwalk, said she would sign the petition because she believes life is sacred, from conception to natural death.

"God's the one that gives life, God's the one that can take the life," she said. "Who are we to say, 'You die, you live, you die?' That's what's happening in society today. It's too many people trying to take that power into themselves."