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The greatest woman Doctor of the Church was not unconcerned about death row inmates.

My favorite story of St. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) is this incident: There was a prisoner, Niccolo di Toldo, age 24, who was about to be executed for treason against the government and "sowing discord" during a civil uprising in Siena. He was angry, raving and crying out in wrath, and would not reconcile himself to Christ.

Niccolo did not wish to repent or receive the Last Rites. However, Catherine came to the prison to embrace him and comfort him saying that Christ was with him through his suffering.

She said that for him to know the day, time, and manner of his coming death was a great mercy not given to everyone, and that he should make use of this singular blessing by repenting of his sins and receiving the love of Christ.

She persuaded him to confess his sins and receive Holy Communion, something he had not done in years. Catherine was present at his execution. In a letter to St. Raymond of Capus she wrote:

I waited for him at the place of execution, and as I waited, I kept praying... Before he arrived, I lay down and stretched out my head on the block, and begged Mary for the grace I wanted, namely, that I might give him light and peace of heart at the moment of death...
Then he arrived, like a meek lamb, and when he saw me he began to smile. He asked me to make the sign of the cross over him...
He prostrated with great meekness and I stretched out his neck and bent down to him, reminding him of the blood of the Lamb. His lips kept murmuring only "Jesus" and "Catherine," and he was still murmuring when I received his head into my hands.

Catherine's biographer records that as Niccolo's blood gushed over her white Dominican habit, she had a vision of his soul entering Paradise. She 'saw' him turn for a moment and smile at her, and the whole crowd hushed and fell to their knees. A priest at the scene of the execution said "We all felt that we had witnessed, not the execution of a criminal, but the Transitus of a Saint."

So this could be the spiritual blessing of the death penalty: that the guilty party accepts the justice of his sentence and, trusting Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, offers his death as expiation for his sins.

What I want to know is, is there any Catholic in Florida who is Catholic, who has such faith in Christ and love for the criminal, that they will help guide his soul to Paradise?

Thanks Mrs. Don-o.

It may sound ridiculous to some, but I believe that Jesus was not opposed to the death penalty.

First, death was the prescribed punishment for lots and lots of crimes, as detailed in Exodus, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and Numbers. Death was prescribed for striking one's father or for working on the Sabbath. Not just murder. Many other crimes were capital offenses.

And when Jesus made the New Covenant, He did not, with the New Covenant, abolish the entirety of the old Jewish Law in these books. Rather, he said, he came to fulfill the Law.

Next, at His trial by Annas and the Senhedrin, Jesus did not object to the fact that he was being tried for a capital crime, rather he objected to the violations of procedure that he saw: The non-corroboration of two witnesses. Being sentenced for a completely different crime he was not initially indicted for.

Being sentenced for a crime that he admitted to doing at trial himself (admitting he was the Son of God).

Note that being the Son of God or claiming to be was not the initial crime he was indicted for.

Note also that, even then, it was not proper legally for someone to have an admission of a crime serve as evidence against himself (an ancient legal concept proscribing self-incrimination that was part of the ancient law, English Common Law, and was of course enshrined in our Constitution as the Fifth Amendment).

Next, when struck by the guard for replying to the high priest in a manner thought contemptuous, Jesus said, "Bear witness to whatever untruth or wrong I have said or done. But if I have said or done none, then, why hit me?"

Lastly, the thing Jesus DID NOT SAY was, 'capital punishment is bad in all cases, for this and for all crimes, and you are wrong for doing this.' He did not say that because it would have been contrary to the Old Testament Law, which was not revoked by Jesus. The Ten Commandments and the Old Law are still intact. Including the death penalty.

Postscript: St. Thomas Aquinas elaborated on the validity and specific implementation of the death penalty in the Summa.

Postscript 2: The Catechism of the Church also has endorsed the validity of the death penalty, and this has not been overturned by any encyclical or council of the Church.

IMHO.