Pax Christi – Liberty group met this past Sunday and discussed the first five chapters of The Nonviolent Life by Fr. John Dear. Chapter 1 says: “If we forget that other people are our beloved sisters and brothers, we will end up killing people, building nuclear weapons, bombing people with our drones, or vaporizing people as we did in Hiroshima. This violence comes as a direct result of our mindlessness.”
This statement is rings true as we mourn another Missouri execution. Richard Strong was executed by lethal injection this past Tuesday evening. Authorities turned aside a last-minute plea from his daughter, who was only months old when Strong killed her mother and sister. Governor Jay Nixon denied clemency once again and focused on Strong’s victims being deeply affected in his statement to the public. The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 against issuing a stay postponing the execution. Strong’s attorney, Jennifer Herndon, argued that Strong was mentally ill. Unfortunately, Richard Strong was the fourth person to be executed in Missouri this year.
Fr. John Dear refers to the importance of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. The nonviolent Jesus gives specifically instruction us which emotions to cultivate, forbidding anger and fear and recommending grief. Let’s continue to grieve together the executions done in our name by the State of Missouri.
Daryl Charron, C.PP.S.
