Lima, Peru, Aug 15, 2006 / 22:00 pm
The Archbishop of Lima, Cardinal Juan Luis Cipriani, said this week “the Church does not defend nor authorize the death penalty,” which Peruvian president Alan Garcia has proposed as a way to punish those who rape and murder minors.
In a recent statement the cardinal noted that the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states that “recourse to this option for resolving a problem in society should be very rare.”
He emphasized that while the “opinion of the people is important,” it is extremely important that “those who govern and legislate be enlightened with greater serenity in order to be able to study these things.”
The cardinal proposed the establishment of a non-political commission to study alternatives to the president’s proposal of reinstating the death penalty.
He said the government should work to prevent sexual crimes against minors through greater moral education, which he called a “great challenge.” He also rejected proposals to impose castration on sex offenders, saying the Church does not approve of corporal mutilation.