Catholic News 2
BALTIMORE (AP) -- Three gunmen shot and wounded eight people including a 3-year-old girl on an east Baltimore street Saturday night, police said, adding the suspects fled and the victims were all expected to survive....
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Charlotte police released dramatic video Saturday that shows officers with guns drawn surrounding a black man with his hands at his side before shots are fired and he buckles and falls. It's unclear if there was anything in the man's hands in the footage, which has done little to assuage his relatives....
BURLINGTON, Wash. (AP) -- The Latest on a fatal shooting at a mall in Washington state (all times local):...
Los Angeles, Calif., Sep 24, 2016 / 04:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Californians should vote for Proposition 62, a ballot measure to end the death penalty, the Archbishop of Los Angeles has said in a reflection on justice, Catholic teaching and American society.“It is time for us to end the death penalty – not only in California but throughout the United States and throughout the world,” Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said Sept. 21.“In a culture of death, I believe mercy alone can be the only credible witness to the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person.”His essay is part of a special issue of the Los Angeles archdiocese's newsweekly Angelus dedicated to the Church and the death penalty.Rather than condemn criminals to death, he said, Christians “should pray for their conversion and encourage their rehabilitation and ultimate restoration to society.”Those who seek an end to the death penalty must not forget the victims of c...
Los Angeles, Calif., Sep 24, 2016 / 04:04 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Californians should vote for Proposition 62, a ballot measure to end the death penalty, the Archbishop of Los Angeles has said in a reflection on justice, Catholic teaching and American society.
“It is time for us to end the death penalty – not only in California but throughout the United States and throughout the world,” Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said Sept. 21.
“In a culture of death, I believe mercy alone can be the only credible witness to the sanctity of life and the dignity of the human person.”
His essay is part of a special issue of the Los Angeles archdiocese's newsweekly Angelus dedicated to the Church and the death penalty.
Rather than condemn criminals to death, he said, Christians “should pray for their conversion and encourage their rehabilitation and ultimate restoration to society.”
Those who seek an end to the death penalty must not forget the victims of crime and their loved ones.
“We entrust them to the Father of mercies and we pray that he grant them healing and peace,” the archbishop continued.
California’s ballot measure Prop. 62, which is on the November ballot, would replace the death penalty with lifetime in prison without parole.
Public opinion survey results have been mixed.
A Sept. 1-8 online poll of 1,909 registered voters sponsored by the USC Dornslife College and the Los Angeles Times found that only 40 percent of registered voters would approve the proposal. Another survey, run by the Field Poll, polled 942 likely voters Sept.7-13. It found support from 48 percent of voters and opposition from 37 percent.
Another ballot measure, Prop. 66, would limit the appeal process for death row inmates and shorten the time from sentencing to execution.
Archbishop Gomez cited St. John Paul II’s words in his final U.S. visit in 1999, in which the Pope called the death penalty “cruel and unnecessary.”
“The reason is that every life is sacred and every person has a dignity that comes from God,” the archbishop explained. “This is true for the innocent and it is true for the guilty. It is true even for those convicted of the most violent crimes.”
He acknowledged historical Catholic support for the death penalty.
“The Catholic Church has always taught that legitimate governments have the right to impose the death penalty on those guilty of the most serious crimes. This teaching has been consistent for centuries — in the Scriptures, in the writings of the Church Fathers and in the teachings of the Popes,” he said.
“But in recent years, there has been a growing consensus that the use of the death penalty can no longer be accepted.”
Archbishop Gomez cited a “strange appetite for violence” in American culture, violent video games, demeaning music and entertainments.
“In this cultural context, I do not see how the death penalty can ever again express society’s ultimate value for human life. In this cultural context, the death penalty can only function as one more killing.”
Archbishop Gomez and the Los Angeles archdiocese’s Office of Life, Justice and Peace have established a website supporting a Yes vote on Proposition 62, www.killingisntjustice.org.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Liberty guard Brittany Boyd sat on the bench with her head bowed during the national anthem....
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- Ted Cruz appears uncomfortable defending the man he says he'll vote for in November, Donald Trump....
BURLINGTON, Wash. (AP) -- The first 911 call came in just before 7 p.m. on a busy Friday night at the Cascade Mall: A man with a rifle was shooting at people in the Macy's Department Store....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Black history officially has a new, prominent place in America's story....
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Charlotte police released dramatic video footage Saturday that shows officers surrounding a black man with his hands at his side before shots are fired and he buckles to the ground. It's unclear if there was anything in the man's hands....
(Vatican Radio) Austria's chancellor has convened a meeting of his German, Greek and west Balkans counterparts on strategies to deal with Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War Two, including closing the so-called Balkans route, which was used by hundreds of thousands of refugees.Listen to Stefan Bos' report: European leaders met in Vienna Saturday at Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern's invitation to discuss how to better fortify the European Union's outer borders against illegal migration and trafficking.As the meeting began, EU Council President Donald Tusk told reporters that the summit should focus on how to keep closed the Balkans route that was used last year by hundreds of thousands of people from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other troubled nations. "Since the first days of the migration crisis I had no doubts that the main key to a resolution is restoring effective control of the EU external borders," he said."And obviou...
(Vatican Radio) Austria's chancellor has convened a meeting of his German, Greek and west Balkans counterparts on strategies to deal with Europe's biggest migration crisis since World War Two, including closing the so-called Balkans route, which was used by hundreds of thousands of refugees.
Listen to Stefan Bos' report:
European leaders met in Vienna Saturday at Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern's invitation to discuss how to better fortify the European Union's outer borders against illegal migration and trafficking.
As the meeting began, EU Council President Donald Tusk told reporters that the summit should focus on how to keep closed the Balkans route that was used last year by hundreds of thousands of people from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and other troubled nations. "Since the first days of the migration crisis I had no doubts that the main key to a resolution is restoring effective control of the EU external borders," he said.
"And obviously an essential precondition towards achieving this goal is close cooperation with our partners in the Balkans and Turkey. Today we should discuss how to improve the effectiveness of our actions. We need to confirm politically and in practise that Balkans route is closed for good," the commissioner added.
He and Austrian, German, Greek and west Balkan leaders tried to overcome their differences amid mounting tensions within the EU over whether to accept more asylum seekers and how to resettle them within the EU.
Open door
Germany's Open Door policy has been especially criticized by Eastern European countries. Hungary's anti-migration Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, for instance, even proposed that in his words "illegal migrants should be rounded up and placed in refugee camps set up outside the EU."
Orbán spoke ahead of a Hungary's October 2 referendum on whether to accept EU plans to resettle some 160.000 refugees among member states.
Yet the EU's migration commissioner, Dimitris Avramopoulos, called for a more compassionate, humane approach towards refugees. "And I am sure that today following the debates that will follow we shall all come out showing solidarity among us. And of course providing always human despertate people with humanity and signity," he said.
However, "let me tell me one thing: Since we talk about solidarity, solidarity is not à la card," Avramopoulos added.
"Solidarity and responsibility are basic values and principles. Not only moral principles but also legal principles, explicitly stipulated in the treaties of the Union."
At the same time the EU wants to prevent a repeat of the situation last year when more than a million migrants and refugees crossed into Europe.
