The Catholic Church stance on capital punishment recognizes the right for the authority of states to impose the death penalty, but it strongly believes that individual governments should rarely exercise the rights to do so. "We can never condone the deliberate taking of a human life created in love by God and redeemed in Jesus Christ"-Archbishop Renato Martino.
             The Catholic Church does understand and sympathize with the amount of pain that those close to a murdered loved one must feel. The church does believe that as the families struggle to overcome their terrible loss and fear, they may find some sense of peace. The church also understands that those individuals who commit the violent crimes must be separated from society, so that they can be punished and not take any more lives or victims.
             The Vatican does support one level of capital punishment. The Vatican will agree with a death penalty if it is a case where executing an offender is the only way of protecting a society against an aggressor. The Catholic Catechism points out that such instances "are rare, if not practically non-existent". The church wants to effectively prevent offenders from doing harm without killing them.
             Vengeance is an understandable human reaction when evil confronts us. As people of faith living in a violent world the Catholic Church urges victim' families and friends to seek justice without vengeance, and to seek an end to the cycle of violence by punishing the murders without executing them. Execution extinguishes the possibility for rehabilitation and compensation. When humans commit sinful crimes, such as murder, they need to be severely punished and yet rehabilitated so that they are able to learn from their mistakes and become better individuals.
             Capital punishment fuels human's desires for revenge. Revenge will never make the death of a loved one better, or easier to cope with. Revenge is a way to get bac...