It began in February with a signature gathering campaign to help the measure qualify for the ballot and ended with a series of high profile speaking events in the diocese during October. Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ, famed author of the book that inspired the Oscar-winning film “Dead Man Walking,” gave five different presentations in the diocese, telling her story of conversion on the issue.
“It’s about the awakening of compassion,” Sr. Helen toward a crowd at the Diocesan Pastoral Center on Oct. 3. “Because the only way we have the death penalty in California and in 33 other states is because we’ve been able to turn a switch and all those people on death row are not human in the same way we are.”
Sr. Helen also spoke at the University of Redlands, Sacred Heart parish in Palm Desert, Xavier College Preparatory High School and St. Joan of Arc parish in Victorville.
Another perspective offered to Catholics in the diocese was that of former executioners who have come to oppose the death penalty. Former Florida warden Ron McAndrew and former Virginia corrections officer Jerry Givens spoke at St. Catherine of Alexandria parish in Riverside on Oct. 23. Both men spoke of the spiritual crisis they experienced after they began to carry out executions.
“I’m just as guilty as the man who took that life,” said Givens in an impassioned monologue. “Who’s going to execute the executioner?”
McAndrew described how his struggle with the issue led him, a lifelong Southern Baptist, to convert to Catholicism. “I had to renew my faith and renew myself as a human being.”
St. Catherine Youth Minister Archie La Salle said the testimony of McAndrew and Givens gave him hope. “People who were so for it, who did it for a job, changed their heart,” he said.
In the aftermath of Prop 34’s defeat Bishop Gerald Barnes issued a statement encouraging local Catholics to continue to work for an end to the death penalty and to keep those directly impacted by the issue – families of murder victims, death row inmates and their families – in prayer.
Steve Gomez, associate director of the diocesan Ministry of Restorative Justice, was integral to the advocacy efforts of the diocese on Prop 34. Despite the election day loss, he said the advocacy work was not in vain.
“I think we did a lot of good education and we need to keep fighting for this,” he said.