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RELIGIOUS MEN AND WOMEN AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY
AND FOR MORE HUMANE CONDITIONS IN PRISON.
AN APPEAL OF THE SUPERIOR GENERALS,
MALE AND FEMALE, TO THE WHOLE WORLD.
We,
male and female Superior Generals of different Institutes of
Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, challenged
once again by the words of the Lord Jesus �I was in prison and
you came to see me� and by the commandment �Thou shall not
kill�, wish to commit ourselves and our religious families to
work:
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to
secure a better and different future for all the prisoners in
the world;
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to
humanize the conditions they live in;
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to
cancel the shame of the death penalty from the laws of every
State;
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to
definitively eradicate the culture of vengeance from every
society.
Social progress in the last century had awakened in many people
the awareness that punishment for any crime, however severe, was
not to be only a fair retribution of the evil done, but also a
time to form a new conscience.
Under the pressure of fear and insecurity, prisons are again
becoming secluded places, that segregate and cast aside without
offering any hope to change.
In
prison, people�s lives grow worse: it is easier for people to
get sick and it is harder for them to have access to treatment;
the conditions of promiscuity due to overcrowding are sometimes
unbearable. The chances of ending up in prison are higher for
the poor. And in Countries where misery is rampant, the prisons
are unliveable: prisoners are amassed in lurid corners, with no
light, no water, no proper clothes. Often they are forgotten.
As
Christians, we cannot accept all this. We believe in the power
and grace of repentance, which changes everyone�s hearts and
lives, even of people who are guilty, even of people who have
soiled their hands with criminal acts: amendment is a source of
good and humanity that spreads and radiates to everyone and
improves any society.
That is why we demand that governments all over the world
abolish the death penalty: it does not protect society and it
corrupts. There is no reasonable cause to take a human being�s
life. Everyone has the right to live and to hope.
Today commit ourselves anew:
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to
shatter the solitude of prisoners and of people sentenced to
death;
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to
watch that while protecting the society, justice is also fair,
impartial, reasonable, human, never excluding the chance to
grant pardon;
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to
increase the awareness of society, institutions and public
opinion on prisoners� conditions;
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to
make more human places out of prisons and � as far as possible �
death rows, waiting for them to be dismantled.
A better world is possible!
Per informazioni:
[email protected]
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