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 By Rev. Richard Benson, C.M.
Does an embryo have a soul? Isn't society justified in putting to death a criminal that has committed a capital crime? Why should taxpayers have to support health care and schooling for undocumented children? Why didn't Pope John Paul II agree to call President Bush's invasion of Iraq a "just war"? When did health care become a "right"?
All of these apparently unconnected questions actually involve the same central Catholic moral principle, the consistent ethic of life. This principle is often associated with Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s 1983 proposal of the “seamless garment” analogy, a reference from John 19:23 to the seamless robe of Jesus, to provide a moral compass to help Catholics apply moral principles to life issues present in the public square.
Cardinal Bernardin suggested that a consistent ethic of life might be the most effective approach in addressing issues dealing with human life and dignity in a modern society more and more identified with the “culture of death.” His seamless garment approach suggests that all life issues such as abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, social injustice, racism, prejudice, poverty, unjust war and economic injustice are most effectively confronted when done so with a consistent application of moral principles that are firmly founded on the intrinsic value of human life.
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A Reflection Piece and Study Guide
Statement of the California Catholic Conference of Bishops
July 1999
Introduction
Having adopted the U. S. Bishops' statement, The Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty, we wish to put forth this document for pastors, preachers, and teachers to be used in preparation to disseminate the Church's teaching on the death penalty.
A critical hallmark of the Roman Catholic moral tradition is found in its insistence that the first right of the human person is the right to life. It does not belong to society, nor does it belong to public authority in any form, to recognize this right for some and not for others.[1]
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 At a hearing on the revised lethal injection protocols, speakers from around the state largely denounced the new execution procedures and voiced opposition to the death penalty in general. Only a handful of speakers spoke in support.
Fr. George Horan, co-director of the Office of Restorative Justice for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and a chaplain at LA County's Men's Central Jail, questioned the requirement that a chaplain report the details of conversations with the condemned.
"Chaplains are there to be a loving and compassionate presence for those in prison," explained Fr. Horan. "They are not trained physiologists or part of the prison staff able to evaluate how something revealed in a conversation might be pertinent to the execution."
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Commentary by Rev. Michael Carson
 If any California institution was totally ineffective, cost millions of dollars without benefit and had a less expensive alternative, one might think we would at least consider eliminating it.
All these criteria describe the death penalty. So why do we still have the death penalty in California?
I have been doing anti-death penalty work since before ordination. At first, I would come ready to debate with facts, figures, studies, Church documents and moral statements. However, the only question consistently asked is, what would I do if my mother or sister were murdered? Would I not want the death penalty?
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