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Japan | Hakamada found religion, but then felt under attack by ‘the devil’

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Editor's note: This is the last in a four-part series on letters that Iwao Hakamada wrote while on death row. About a decade after cursing God, Iwao Hakamada was baptized Catholic at the Tokyo Detention House on Dec. 24, 1984. “Since I have been given the Christian name Paul, I am keenly feeling that I should be aware of the greatness of Paul.” (June 1985)

US Catholics condemn ban on chaplains in execution chamber

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Ruben Gutierrez
Catholic Mobilizing Network, the national Catholic organization working to end the death penalty and promote restorative justice, has joined the Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops in opposing a change in Texas execution protocols implemented last April, which bans chaplains and ministers from the execution chamber. 

The Texas Bishops filed an amicus brief Friday supporting the First Amendment rights of Ruben Gutierrez, who is scheduled for execution on June 16, 2020 without a chaplain present.

"Catholics and people of all faiths should be profoundly unsettled by Texas' willingness not only to execute Ruben Gutierrez, but also to deny him the presence of a spiritual advisor," commented Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, Executive Director of CMN. 

"Our faith teaches that the death penalty is always inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability of the person. This added indignity of no spiritual accompaniment blatantly disregards the sacred dignity of the human person."

"To deny a prisoner facing imminent execution access to spiritual and religious guidance and accompaniment is cruel and inhuman. It is an affront to the moral and religious dimensions of human dignity, which are clearly protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution," said Bishop Daniel Flores of Brownsville in a statement released by the Texas Conference of Catholic Bishops. 

In the event the execution moves forward as scheduled on June 16, Ruben Gutierrez will become the first person executed by the state of Texas since the global declaration of the coronavirus pandemic in March.

Source: indcatholicnews.com, Katlyn Toelle, June 15, 2020


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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde
Location: Huntsville, TX, USA
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