Capital punishment and Catholicism2 sources citedAmong the main nations of the Western world, the United States is the only one to still have the death penalty. After a five-year moratorium from 1972 to 1977, capital punishment was reinstated in U.S. courts. Objections to the practice have come from many quarters, including the American Catholic bishops, who have consistently opposed the death penalty. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops in 1980 issued a predominantly negative statement on capital punishment, which was approved by a majority vote of those present but not the required two-thirds majority of the entire conference (1). Pope John Paul II has repeatedly expressed his opposition to this practice, as have other Catholic leaders in Europe. Some Catholics, going beyond the bishops and the Pope, argue that the death penalty, like abortion and euthanasia, is a violation of the right to life and an unauthorized usurpation by human beings of the sole lordship of God about life and death. Didn't the Declaration of Independence, they ask, describe the right to life as "inalienable"? While sociological and legal issues inevitably impact such reflection, I am addressing the topic here as a theologian. At this level the question must be resolved first and foremost in terms of revelation, as it comes to us through Scripture and tradition, interpreted with the guidance of ecclesiastical magisterium. In the New Testament the right of the state to execute criminals appears to be taken for granted. Jesus himself refrains from using violence. He reproaches his disciples for wanting to bring down fire from heaven to punish the Samaritans for their lack of hospitality (Lk 9.55). He later admonishes Peter to put his sword back in its sheath rather than resist arrest (Matthew 26:52). At no point, however, does Jesus deny that the state has the authority to impose capital punishment. In his debates with the Pharisees, Jesus quotes with approval the apparently harsh commandment: "Whoever speaks evil of his father or mother must surely die" (Matthew 15.4; Mark 7.10, referring to Exodus 2l.17; cf. Leviticus 20 :9). When Pilate calls attention to his authority to crucify him, Jesus points out that Pilate's power comes from above, that is, from God (John 19:11).