"Cruel and Unnecessary"

Yesterday, a Vatican news-service summarized a report from the Vatican Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, which analyzed the death penalty. This Congregation described in a phrase as "cruel and unnecessary."

"Love Your Enemies: How States Take Lives" includes an overview of the methods that nations have used in recent years to inflict death, a list of those countries that allow the death penalty. The report also includes an interview with a professor from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan and one with a spokesman for the Community of Sant'Egidio.

[One webpage of the Community of Sant'Egidio lists nations and their actions against the death penalty. The most recent, as of this posting, was 21 August 2007 by the Republic of Congo.]

The document raised questions regarding the use of the death penalty on minors and detailed information on the innocent who are erroneously condemned to death.

Its examination of this respect-life issue used 2006 statistics and was global in scope.