Two archdiocesan entities and a foundation formed by the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word are partnering with the St. Louis International Film Festival Human Rights Program to present “An American Tragedy: One Man’s Journey to Death, Another Man’s Journey to Forgive” at Washington University at 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11.
The film showing is sponsored by the St. Louis Archdiocese’s Peace and Justice Commission and Respect Life Apostolate along with the Incarnate Word Foundation.
“The commission felt that sponsoring this powerful documentary would be a way to publicly promote our Church’s position on the death penalty and the dignity of all human life,” said Marie Kenyon, director of the Peace and Justice Commission.
“The death penalty is a pro-life issue,” said Karen Nolkemper, executive director of the archdiocesan Respect Life Apostolate. “When you’re pro-life in a whole life way, you respect all life from womb to tomb. We need to consider that this is about mercy, redemption, forgiveness and hope. Justice can take place without having to take another human life.”
In 1989, 17-year-old Kelli Hall was kidnapped, raped and murdered in St. Charles by Jeffrey Ferguson and an accomplice. Ferguson was executed in 2014. The film shows how Ferguson transformed from a drug- and alcohol-addicted, defiantly unrepentant reprobate to a clean-and-sober, selfless model inmate who helped improve the lives of fellow convicts and took full responsibility for his crime.
The film by Lisa Boyd first recounts the crime and trial, emphasizing the trauma to the Hall family, and then shifts its emphasis to Ferguson.
It is too easy to present the question of capital punishment in the form of “us vs. them,” according to Maureen Kramlich, former public policy analyst for the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities of the USCCB.
In “Life Matters: We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us,” part of the bishops’ Respect Life Program, Kramlich wrote about four loved ones of murder victims who advocate against the death penalty.
“At times the most eloquent and sincere opponents of the death penalty are those who have suffered the most at the hands of violent criminals,” Kramlich wrote. “They urge us to look beyond the instinct for vengeance, to the infinitely loving God whose children we all are. In the end, the defining issue is not how wicked the criminal’s actions are, but how we should respond if we are to become a society that more fully reveres and respects human life.”
>> ‘An American Tragedy’
WHAT: “An American Tragedy,” a film by Lisa Boyd on the execution of Jeffrey Ferguson, the journey of Jim Hall and the life of his daughter, Kelli Hall, and asking “Would you forgive the man who killed your daughter?”
WHEN: 4 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 11, with questions and answers to follow
WHERE: Brown Hall, Washington University
COST: Free; Contact Marie Kenyon for tickets, [email protected], (314) 792-7062
SPONSORS: Peace and Justice Commission of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, the Respect Life Apostolate of the archdiocese and the Incarnate Word Foundation
The death penalty
A new draft of paragraph 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Aug. 2, after Pope Francis approved it in May.
The new material states:
“Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.
“Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.
“Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”
ForgivenessChristian prayer extends to the forgiveness of enemies, transfiguring the disciple by configuring him to his Master. Forgiveness is a high point of Christian prayer; only hearts attuned to God’s compassion can receive the gift of prayer. Forgiveness also bears witness that, in our world, love is stronger than sin. The martyrs of yesterday and today bear this witness to Jesus. Forgiveness is the fundamental condition of the reconciliation of the children of God with their Father and of men with one another.
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2844