9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act 2004

October 21, 2004

Dear Conferee:

You have heard from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on the issues impacting immigration within the House-passed version of S. 2845, the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act. I write now on behalf of USCCB regarding those provisions in the legislation dealing with the expansion of the death penalty for terrorists.

The Senate version of the bill, the National Intelligence Reform Act (S. 2845) does not contain any of the death penalty provisions.  As a member of the House/Senate conference committee we urge you to report out a final bill without the expansion of the death penalty for terrorists.

The cowardly attacks of September 11 and their tragic human costs still haunt our nation. There can be no diminishing the horror of terrorism or the responsibility of those who employ wanton violence on the innocent. Based on our Catholic teaching, however, we oppose expanding the death penalty even for terrorists. As you know, the bishops of the United States oppose the use of the death penalty in any instance.  Catholic teaching on capital punishment is clear: If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person (Catechism of the Catholic Church).

Besides our Catholic teaching regarding the death penalty, there are two other important considerations. First, the expansion of the death penalty was not included in the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission; Congress need not go any further.

Secondly, we feel strongly that suicidal terrorists are not going to be deterred by the death penalty.  In fact, many terrorists believe that if they die committing an act of terrorism they will become martyrs. At the very least, it would seem that executing terrorists could make them heroes in the minds of other like-minded advocates of terror.

As pastors, we believe that the use of the death penalty under any circumstances diminishes us as human beings. As we said in Confronting a Culture of Violence: “We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing.”  Once again, the USCCB urges you to reject the expansion of the death penalty in the House version of the bill.

Thank you for your time and consideration. With every good wish, I am

Faithfully yours,

Theodore Cardinal McCarrick
Archbishop of Washington
Chairman, Domestic Policy Committee
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops