Manchin’s Views on the Death Penalty
a Disappointment to Catholics
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MICHAEL J. IAFRATE
Governor Manchin, West Virginia Catholics won’t stand for it.
In the wake of a controversial election when "life issues" came to the forefront of concern for many Catholic Christians, West Virginia’s Catholic governor Joe Manchin was welcomed to that office by Roman Catholic officials and priests, many of which attended his inauguration. Now, only months after beginning his term in office, Manchin has announced that he will not rule out bringing the death penalty back to West Virginia after the state has enjoyed forty years of no capital punishment.

The irony here, aside from the fact that Roman Catholic leaders (including the Pope) have spoken out against the death penalty, is that Manchin's public statement about the death penalty came one week before Holy Week, the week in which Christians commemorate the execution of Jesus, himself a victim of the death penalty. Further, the United States Conference Catholic Bishops chose the week of Christ’s passion to unveil a new campaign called "The Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty." The campaign website is http://www.ccedp.org.

Do these connections not register with Manchin, a self-proclaimed pro-life Catholic democrat? In an AP article appearing in Huntington’s Herald-Dispatch, he was quoted as saying, "I’ve got my personal beliefs and my religious beliefs that are deeply rooted in how I was raised as a person. Those don’t change." But despite his appeal to the religious sensibilities of West Virginians, Manchin's "personal beliefs" obviously differ from those of the many Catholics who believe in the dignity and sacredness of all human life, whether that life is a fetus, an Iraqi soldier, the “inconvenient” elderly or sick person, or a death row inmate.

Manchin's public statements reflecting his position on the death penalty reveal one more example of how the Catholic community, particularly the Catholic anti-abortion lobby, was used by politicians on both sides of the partisan divide during the 2004 election. President Bush and Mr. Manchin were both lauded as reflecting "Catholic values," and both candidates had no problem accepting the praise, as long as it garnered votes. In practice, however, neither candidate can be said to reflect "Catholic values" in any real sense, especially with regard to Catholic social teaching. Now that we are seeing these politicians in action, just a few months after the election, hopefully a few more Catholics are
beginning to understand this.

An even more interesting question is how the right-wing Catholic "pro-life" movement will react to Manchin's position and the inevitable pro-death penalty maneuvers that will transpire in the upcoming months. Will pro-lifers take action on this issue before it becomes more of a ossibility?
Will the Catholic community be strong enough to give a firm "NO" to the thought of bringing the death penalty back to West Virginia? Certainly, many Catholic “pro-life” advocates will not, and will continue to espouse a schizophrenic view of the sanctity of life in which some lives are more valuable than others. It is difficult to imagine, for example, pro-life advocates petitioning bishops to deny
Manchin communion should he continue to endorse policies that contradict Catholic teaching on the death penalty.

But as a whole, the Catholic community in the U.S. is growing evermore critical of capital punishment, and the U.S. bishops’ new campaign is evidence of this. We can be confident that Manchin and other officials who support the death penalty – such as Republican Delegate John Overington who has been working tirelessly to bring the death penalty back to West Virginia for two decades – will not be able to follow through with their plans without Catholics, both ordained and lay, putting up one hell of a fight.

"I am proud to be the bishop of a state which has continually refused to reintroduce capital punishment," said the newly elected Bishop Michael Bransfield of the Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston at a pro-life rally this past March, a rally attended also by Manchin. As the Christian churches continue to observe the season of Easter, the celebration of Jesus’ victory over the forces of death, let’s hope – and pray – that all the elbow rubbing Manchin has been doing with Catholic leaders will cause some of those “Catholic values” to truly rub off on our new governor.

Taken from http://www.catholicanarchy.org
Michael J. Iafrate received a Masters degree in Applied Theology from Wheeling Jesuit University and works as a campus minister in Morgantown. He can be reached at miafrate@adelphia.net.