Many of you have heard of Antoinette Bosco, longtime columnist for the Catholic press. In 1993, her son and daughter-in-law were brutally murdered in their sleep. Recently, Dr. Bosco spoke at St. John’s University about her opposition to the death penalty:

Forgiveness takes time,” she says, “but nothing good comes of refusing to let go of anger. I continued to ask Jesus daily what he meant by love your enemies. I was so shattered by what had happened that I had to renew my faith every day. I realized that Jesus was sent here to show us how to make the world right.”

“Choosing to show mercy and compassion has helped me move on with life, and that, I believe, is what victims need to do.”

“Now I knew [after entering the bedroom where her son and his wife had been killed] that I could never accept unnatural death at the hands of another again, not even when it is called legitimate, but more so, I knew why,” she writes in her book: Choosing Mercy; A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty [Orbis Books, 1991].

(That’s an incorrect publication date – 2001 is more like it)

“Life and death are God’s territory, not ours. I wanted the killer found, put away and punished. I knew I would have to struggle a long time with my feelings, because the anger was still so fresh. But never would I be able to say, kill the killer.”