Where Justice and Mercy Meet

Where Justice and Mercy Meet: Catholic Opposition to the Death Penalty comprehensively explores the Catholic stance against capital punishment in new and important ways. The broad perspective of this book has been shaped in conversation with the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty, as well as through the witness of family members of murder victims and the spiritual advisors of condemned inmates.

The book offers the reader new insight into the debates about capital punishment; provides revealing, and sometimes surprising, information about methods of execution; and explores national and international trends and movements related to the death penalty. It also addresses how the death penalty has been intertwined with racism, the high percentage of the mentally disabled on death row, and how the death penalty disproportionately affects the poor.

The foundation for the church's position on the death penalty is illuminated by discussion of the life and death of Jesus, Scripture, the Mass, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and the teachings of Pope John Paul II. Written for concerned Catholics and other interested readers, the book contains contemporary stories and examples, as well as discussion questions to engage groups in exploring complex issues.

Vicki Schieber is a member of the organizational team of the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty (CMN) and staffs CMN's internship and educational programming initiatives at Mount St. Mary's University. She served on the 2008 Maryland Commission on Capital Punishment and is actively engaged in state-level abolition work across the United States. As the mother of a murder victim, she is active in murder victim families support groups.

Trudy D. Conway is a professor of philosophy at Mount St. Mary's University. Her two books and scholarly articles and presentations are in the areas of contemporary philosophy, virtue ethics, and intercultural dialogue. She is actively involved in abolition work to end the death penalty and contributes to the educational initiatives of the Catholic Mobilizing Network to End the Use of the Death Penalty.

David Matzko McCarthy is the Father Forker Professor of Catholic Social Teaching in the theology department at Mount St. Mary's University. His five books and numerous articles and presentations are in the areas of moral theology and Catholic social teaching. He is also the founding editor of the Journal of Moral Theology. His most recent book is Sharing God's Good Company: A Theology of the Communion of Saints (Eerdmans, 2012).