What the U.S. bishops have said Since the late 1970s, when U.S. Supreme Court decisions led to the resumption of executions in the U.S. after a decade-long hiatus, the nation's Catholic bishops have voiced strong opposition to the death penalty. The basic rationale for the bishops' position is contained in their 1980 "Statement on Capital Punishment," in which they stated that, "in the conditions of contemporary American society, the legitimate purposes of punishment do not justify the imposition of the death penalty." Twenty-five years later, in November, 2005, the U.S. bishops reaffirmed their stance in a statement entitled "A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death," stating that "the use of the death penalty is unnecessary and unjustified in our time and circumstances." The texts of both the 1980 and the 2005 statements can be found on the website of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty.(http://www.usccb.org/deathpenalty) This site also contains the 1999 statement issued by the Administrative Board of the U.S. Catholic Conference, titled "A Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty." The 2005 statement, "A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death," is available as a 24-page booklet from USCCB, 3211 4th St.N.E., Washington DC 20017 (www.usccbpublishing.org). The statement can also be downloaded from the website of the USCCB's Department of Justice, Peace, and Human Development (go to http://www.usccb.org and click on "Departments"). In their Nov. 2000 statement entitled "Responsibility, Rehabilitation, and Restoration: A Catholic Perspective on Crime and Criminal Justice," the U.S. bishops wrote: "It is time to abandon the death penalty -- not just because of what it does to those who are executed, but because of how it diminishes all of us... We ask all Catholics--pastors, catechists, educators and parishioners -- to join us in rethinking this difficult issue and committing ourselves to pursuing justice without vengeance. With our Holy Father, we seek to build a society so committed to human life that it will not sanction the killing of any human person." In addition to national statements issued by the USCCB, many state conferences of bishops, as well as individual bishops, have issued statements focusing on the issue as it pertains to their particular states and dioceses. For statements by state groups of bishops, check the website of the National Assn. of State Catholic Conference Directors (http://www.nasccd.org). If your state has a Catholic Conference with a website, that site may contain additional statements. Look for it on the NASCCD website's list of state websites. If your own individual diocese or archdiocese has issued such statements, they may be on your local diocesan website. For a list of such sites, go to www.usccb.org and click on "Dioceses."