Sisters of Saint Joseph raise
their voices to proclaim a vision
of unity in response to situations
and conditions which threaten our global community. We want to
share with you our views about
some important issues.

Death Penalty

The Sisters of St. Joseph and associates have been joining with local and national groups to abolish the death penalty. In the forefront of the movement is Sister Helen Prejean,CSJ whose story of working on death row in her book, Dead Man Walking, was made into a movie and now an opera.

While declaring their opposition to the death penalty, sisters reach out in compassion to victims of violent crime and work for necessary reforms of the prison system. Presently sisters are supporting efforts towards a moratorium on executions and death warrants (www.moratoriumcampaign.org/) until the concept and process can be studied.

Members of the Governing Board of the Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph representing the leaders of more than 9000 sisters in 23 congregations in the United States issued the following statement:

"We have come to believe that the death penalty is the wrong punishment, that it is a step away from redeemed humanity. Public legitimized killing is not a solution to pain or even to grave injustices: it tends to unleash and promote more pain and injustice. While we uphold the right of the state to punish offenders and protect citizens from dangerous criminals, we believe incarceration for life, without the possibility of parole is more appropriate than the use of capital punishment."