Lincoln, Neb., Nov 5, 2016 / 13:47 pm
Bishop James Conley of Lincoln has called on the group "Nebraskans for the Death Penalty" to retract social media advertisements which distort his words to promote a capital punishment initiative in the state.
The advertisements use heavily redacted quotes, taken out of context, from one of Bishop Conley's interviews regarding Referendum 426, a state ballot measure attempting to maintain the death penalty after legislators voted to abolish it.
On October 26th, Bishop Conley conducted a 12-minute radio interview with Coby Mach, host of KLIN's Drive Time Lincoln. The bishop explained the Catholic Church's theological and pastoral positions on the death penalty.
While the Church allows for the death penalty in principle, he said, it holds that in contemporary times, "the circumstances where that would be an option are practically non-existent… we can protect people without recourse to the death penalty."