Statement by Bishop Francis X. DiLorenzo and Bishop Michael F. Burbidge on the Death Penalty in Virginia

Our Creator — who made us out of love for love — has dominion
over all life. As children of this loving, merciful God we are led to a
profound respect for every human life, from its very beginning until its
natural end. Knowing that the state can protect itself in ways other than
through the death penalty, we have repeatedly asked that the practice be
abandoned. Our broken world cries out for justice, not the additional violence
or vengeance the death penalty will exact.
 
We again express profound sorrow and offer our continued prayers for all
victims of violence, whose lives have been brutally cut short, and their loved
ones, whose grief continues. We pray for a change of heart and a spirt of
remorse and conversion on the part of the perpetrators of this violence and ask
God to give all of us the grace to work for peace and respect for all life in
our communities and our Commonwealth.