PRO-DEATH PENALTY CATHOLIC OFFICIALS CHALLENGED:

Add San Antonio, Texas, Archbishop Patrick J. Flores to the list of U.S. Catholic prelates who are questioning Catholic politicians' support of capital punishment in direct opposition to the teachings of their Church. In a mid-February statement on the death penalty read at Masses in his archdiocese, Archbishop Flores said he finds it "disturbing and disappointing that Catholic elected officials promote the machinery of death and destruction in the name of justice and social well being."The archbishop also asked that all upcoming executions be mentioned in the archdiocesan newspaper and on its television station broadcasts "so that readers and the viewing audience will be able to pray for those being executed and for their family members, for the innocent victims and their families."With prayer and effort," he wrote, "we can together bring about a less violent world, a more just and compassionate society - one modeled on the Gospel of Jesus Christ."Archbishop Flores' reference to pro-death penalty Catholic officials did not name any specific individuals, but took on added significance in light of recent comments by Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia - both Catholics - at a Jan. 25 conference in Chicago sponsored by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.At that event, Keating acknowledged that Church teaching on the issue placed him in a difficult position. "In my state, I'm a curiosity, a Catholic governor in an overwhelmingly non-Catholic state," he said, "and yet I'm in the battle on occasion on this issue with our archbishop in Oklahoma City and the bishop in Tulsa. I kind of hide under the bed when they start firing the big guns. It really isn't fun. I'm waiting to go to Mass on Sunday and be denounced from the pulpit. That hasn't happened yet, but it's no fun."Asked why he and other Republican politicians are more responsive to the Church's teachings on abortion.