Pope Leo XIV and Vice President JD Vance at the White House
There was certainly a lot on the agenda when Pope Leo XIV recently met with Marco Rubio: the pontiff sharing the message of the gospel; the secretary of State, a Catholic, trying his best, no doubt, to make peace after the American president dragged the pope into a back-and-forth on war and peace.
And, by official accounts, it went well.
They met “to discuss the situation in the Middle East and topics of mutual interest in the Western Hemisphere,” according to the State Department. “The meeting underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See and their shared commitment to promoting peace and human dignity.”
Human dignity.
I didn’t hear whether the conversation ever turned to the Trump administration’s recent pledge to ramp up executions for those who’ve received the death penalty after being convicted of federal crimes, a move signaled by Donald Trump on his first day back in office.
The Justice Department, in a statement released in April, said that “among the actions taken are readopting the lethal injection protocol utilized during the first Trump Administration, expanding the protocol to include additional manners of execution such as the firing squad, and streamlining internal processes to expedite death penalty cases.”
Other proposals included expanding the kinds of crimes eligible for the ultimate penalty.
To get around state laws that forbid the death penalty or certain methods of carrying it out, the Justice Department proposed finding a state that would allow it to do whatever it wants. Mostly, the current administration seemed eager to reverse the checks put in place by the Biden administration and its Attorney General Merrick B. Garland.
The Catholic Church is pretty clear on this.
Language in the Catechism of the Catholic Church at one time had approved, though hardly enthusiastically, the death penalty in “very rare, if not practically nonexistent” circumstances. But in 2018, under Pope Francis’ leadership, it was revised to read that “a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state,” thus “the death penalty is inadmissible,” as reported in the Vatican News.
Pope Leo, the first American pope, strongly affirmed that “the dignity of the person is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed,” in a video message released in April to a gathering at DePaul University marking the 15th anniversary of the abolition of the death penalty in Illinois.
Believing in the sanctity of life from conception to natural death is not so difficult to understand when you’re talking about the innocence of those yet to be born. Even most women and men who believe in choice will admit that from the moment the doctor first announced, “You’re going to have a baby,” it was a baby, with a life of future possibility.
The challenge is when that life does not come with a clean slate, when the person with life hanging in the balance is a prisoner on death row, convicted of a heinous crime, awaiting an ultimate punishment deemed justified by a court and jury of his or her peers.
But following Catholic teachings has always been a challenge, especially when political leaders you support may contradict the message you hear at Sunday Mass.
Bolstered by friendly Supreme Court rulings, the Trump team has never hesitated to blur the line between church and state. And though polls show general public disapproval of this secular and religious mix, I don’t expect the administration’s actions to change, not as long as white evangelicals remain loyal.
Considering this wearing of religion on its collective sleeve, it’s interesting that I haven’t heard a peep from vocal Catholics in the administration on the death penalty pronouncement. Vice President JD Vance, who writes and speaks often about his conversion to the faith, spends more time lecturing the Augustinian Pope Leo on the fine points of Catholic teachings — and the words of St. Augustine.
I wonder why he chose a faith he so often disagrees with.
I’d like to ask if their consciences are clear about the clash between what their faith demands and what their administration requires.
I don’t expect anyone in an administration that is rushing prisoners to execution and shortening the time they and their lawyers have to fight to be moved by inequalities in the criminal justice system.
It’s no coincidence that the poor, minorities, the marginalized, and those described in religious texts as “the least of us” are the ones who most often end up without adequate representation or attention in the courts or on death row.
When I interviewed anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean, author of Dead Man Walking, on the Slate “What Next” podcast several years ago, she spoke about an upcoming execution spree in the state of Oklahoma. She was just one voice for men with severe mental illness, personal histories of childhood abuse, inadequate legal representation, or claims of innocence.
“The least of us.”
Somehow, I feel her voice is one Pope Leo, Pope Francis and the Catholics I grew up around would recognize.
Whether someone lives or dies should be the most important question of all, I reason, especially for those who profess that all life is sacred.
Mary C. Curtis has worked at The New York Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Charlotte Observer, as national correspondent for Politics Daily, and is a senior facilitator with The OpEd Project. She is host of the CQ Roll Call “Equal Time with Mary C. Curtis” podcast. Follow her on X @mcurtisnc3.
Reprinted with permission from Roll Call
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