This page is updated as new information becomes available: Check back for more resources.
This small-group resource examines Catholic teaching on the death penalty, based on the insights of Sr. Helen Prejean. Sister Helen is a leading advocate for abolition of the death penalty and for elimination of social and economic unfairness in the criminal-justice system. She is also the author of Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States and The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions.
Created in partnership with the Catholic Mobilizing Network, Dignity and the Death Penalty helps participants reflect on the fairness of the criminal justice system, arguments for and against capital punishment, and alternatives to the death sentence.
Parish Resources
From Pope Francis...
Session Resources
Session 2
Session 2 PodcastUSCCB Chairmen Call for Recommitment to Bishop’s Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty, July 16, 2015:
Paulist Prison Ministry:
www.pemdc.org/freeresources/prison-ministry
Session 3
Pope Francis, Fratelli Tutti, October 3, 2020:
Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition:
www.catholicprisonministries.org
“We can build a culture of life,”
catholicsmobilizing.org/resource/top-5-lessons-pastoral-letter-against-racism
This brief video identifies five lessons offered in the USCCB’s November 2018 pastoral letter against racism
Session 4
Catholic Mobilizing Network: catholicsmobilizing.org
Equal Justice USA:
usa.org
“Open Wide Our Hearts: The Enduring Call to Love”:
www.usccb.org/issues-and-action/human-life-and-dignity/racism/upload/open-wide-our-hearts.pdf
Session 5
“Facts About the Death Penalty,” Death Penalty Information Center: files.deathpenaltyinfo.org
Search: Fact Sheet
“Statement of US. Bishop Chairman on Federal Executions Scheduled This Week” [September 22, 2020]:
www.usccb.org/news/2020/statement-us-bishop-chairmen-federal-executions-scheduled-week
Session 6
Not in Our Name by Oregonians for an Alternative to the Death Penalty. See:
www.oadp.org/sites/default/files/NION.pdf or catholicsmobilizing.org/resources
Witness to Innocence Program https://www.witnesstoinnocence.org
Session 7
“National Catholic Pledge to End the Death Penalty” and encourage others to sign it: catholicsmobilizing.org/action/pledge
Harm, Healing and Human Dignity, adapted by Caitlin Morneau, and its reader guide: www.catholicsmobilizing.org/rj-reader-guide
A conversation with Sister Helen Prejean and Dr. Jeannine Marino of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington.
Additional Resources
A guide for people with prior convictions about going to college can be found HERE.