Copyright 2000 P.G. Publishing Co.
Pittsburgh
Post-Gazette
November 16, 2000, Thursday, REGION EDITION
SECTION: NATIONAL, Pg. A-11
LENGTH: 548 words
HEADLINE:
BISHOPS CALL FOR JUSTICE REFORMS, COMPASSION FOR VICTIMS OF CRIME
BYLINE: JOHN RIVERA, THE BALTIMORE SUN
DATELINE: WASHINGTON --
BODY:
The U.S. Roman Catholic bishops yesterday called for sweeping
reforms in the nation's
criminal justice
system, rejecting the increasing use of mandatory sentences and the death
penalty and advocating an approach that includes compassion for crime victims
and rehabilitation for criminals.
The bishops also approved statements
during their annual fall meeting denouncing mistreatment and rejection of
immigrants and encouraging Catholics to welcome them into their parishes, and a
sharply worded critique of the Supreme Court's ruling earlier this year
overturning a Nebraska law prohibiting "partial-birth" abortion.
In a
statement lamenting the unrest in the Middle East, the bishops called for the
establishment of a Palestinian state. Although they had previously echoed Pope
John Paul II's call for a Palestinian homeland, yesterday's statement marked the
bishops' explicit call for a state. The Catholic bishops of the South issued
their own pastoral statement on the abuses of workers' rights in the poultry
industry. It questions the fairness of contracts poultry growers must sign with
corporations, which unfairly leaves major decisions in the hands of the
corporations and economic liabilities with the growers, citing in its
documentation an investigation on poultry farming last year by The Baltimore
Sun.
"These brothers and sisters face many challenges in common,
including questions of a living wage and other workers' rights, human dignity
and immigration issues," the pastoral says.
The statement on criminal
justice, which states the system is ignoring victims and failing to rehabilitate
criminals, clearly rejects an approach solely focused on vengeance.
"A
Catholic approach begins with the recognition that the dignity of the human
person applies to both victim and offender," it says. "As bishops, we believe
that the current trend of more prisons and more executions, with too little
education and drug treatment, does not truly reflect Christian values and will
not really leave our communities safer."
The document rejects rigid
mandatory sentencing and "three strikes and you're out" approaches, calling them
"simplistic" and "one-size-fits-all" solutions to complex problems. The bishops
deplored the increasing trend toward building prisons in remote areas, which
creates hardship for the families of inmates.
"We call upon government
to redirect the vast amount of public resources away from building more and more
prisons and toward better and more effective programs aimed at crime prevention,
rehabilitation, education efforts, substance abuse programs and programs of
probation, parole and reintegration," it says.
To help implement these
recommendations, the Catholic Campaign for Human Development approved $ 1
million in grant money to fund educational and community-based efforts to
address crime and the criminal justice system.
Bishop Edward K. Braxton
of St. Louis praised the statement while warning than it may not be welcomed by
Catholics in the pews, a majority of whom surveys have shown support the death
penalty.
"Our Catholic people, like society as a whole, has a very
strong feeling of vengeance," Braxton said. "I suggest we may not find as
receptive an audience in the church as we might hope for."
LOAD-DATE: November 16, 2000