Antoinette Bosco (herself a murder victim’s family member) wrote a terrific piece recently on Father McGivney, the founder of the Knights of Columbus and his views on the death penalty. I think that it’s worth a read for everyone:

Father McGivney and the Death Penalty

By Antoinette Bosco Catholic News Service

This column is part of the CNS columns package.

A new book has been getting enormous coverage in ads and reviews, and rightly so. It is called “Parish Priest, Father Michael McGivney and American Catholicism” (Morrow). The book is the story of the young Connecticut priest who founded the Knights of Columbus and whose canonization cause has now been introduced.

Moved by seeing the pain of severe poverty and the deaths of too many overworked fathers who died too young, Father McGivney struggled to develop practical ways to ensure financial assistance to families should a breadwinner die. The Knights of Columbus was formed in 1882 to help such families. The Knights now report an international membership of l.7 million men.

I long have been intrigued by the amazing story of this priest, who died Aug. 14, 1890, at age 38. The reason for this lies partly in the fact that I live in Connecticut, not too far from the parishes where Father McGivney served.

Now that I have read Father McGivney’s story, I will pray ever harder for his canonization because I truly believe in his sainthood. There was a surprise in the book that underscored that for me. In an era in America when the death penalty was in full force, Father McGivney tried to save a young man from being executed.

The killing by the young man was a headliner. An unemployed 21-year old named James “Chip” Smith, drinking and carousing one late December night, showing off by shooting a pistol near a saloon, was apprehended by a policeman named Dan Hayes. When the officer, also holding a gun, tried to get Smith’s gun away from him, one of the guns went off, hitting the officer, who died a few hours later.

At trial in 1881, Smith was convicted of murder in the first degree and sentenced to be executed. Father McGivney, a regular visitor to the jail in New Haven who offered spiritual support to the prisoners, began to visit and counsel Smith often.

There were appeals on the grounds that this was not a “premeditated” shooting, but since it was a policeman who had lost his life, judges threw these appeals out.

On the Sunday before the execution, Father McGivney, “broken with emotion,” as a reporter put it, celebrated a Mass for Smith. The priest told his people, “I trust that all of you will offer up fervent prayer to the throne of grace that God will strengthen and prepare us to perform that awful duty which we shall be called upon to perform before this time next Sunday.

“To me this duty comes with almost a crushing weight. If I could consistently with my duty be far away from here next Friday, I should escape perhaps the most trying ordeal of my life, but this sad duty is placed my way by providence and must be fulfilled. If we receive your prayers, Mr. Smith and I shall be sustained by the supreme power in the hour of our great trial.”
Our Catholic bishops have put out a very strong statement calling for the end of the death penalty, asking “the Catholic community to bring about an end to the use of the death penalty in our land.” I find myself praying to Father McGivney in heaven to help us all in this so important respect-life action.

I can only agree.

For anyone interested, Ms. Bosco will be speaking at the meeting of the Diocesan Council of Catholic Women April 21-22.

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it seems that even while we were in the midst of conducting a hugely successful first-ever justice day on the hill that attorney general paul summers, was successfully seeking another execution date here in the volunteer state…

the tennessee supreme court, per curiam with justice adolpho birch not joining the other justices, set may 17th as an execution date for sedley alley … alley was convicted of killing nineteen-year old lance corporal suzanne marie collins while she was jogging near millington naval base in millington, tennessee on july 11, 1985

given that the federal judge who issued a stay in this case in 2004 will not reinstate the stay even though the legal issues surrounding the stay have not been adjudicated and clarified, this date looks pretty serious…

alley’s case is not one that tcask can easily utilize as an example of the failures of the death penalty system – mental illness and innocence claims aside, the crime itself was brutal by any measure and the victim was a young, female marine … arlington national cemetary has a website for suzanne collins and advocates for sedley alley’s execution on it … ms. collins father appears deeply wedded to the idea that alley’s execution will deliver some form of justice (it is not clear what he believes he will obtain through this act of violence) … finally, the murder of suzanne collins is covered in the book journey into darkness, in fact the account of collins’ murder is considered the best written part of the book…

it has been 19 years of pain for the collins’ and perhaps the most cogent argument is one that collins’ parents might consider for the future family members of homicide victims – accept life without parole and begin the healing process … sedley alley has, guilty or innocent, controlled the lives of jack and trudy collins for far too long … they could help keep future survivors’ of homicide victims from traveling down the same torturous path that they have journeyed by opposing the death penalty…

there are some people who oppose the death penalty (in tennessee) who actually support the push for a thorough study of the state’s death penalty system but oppose the moratorium on executions (which aligns them with many deeply conservative republican legislators) … one need only see this execution date come up to see the most serious rationale for the moratorium … we will oppose this execution but we will have to tread very carefully and select our messengers extremely well …

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