John Allen is worth quoting in full on this one:
“It would probably be pushing things a bit far to suggest that Tuesday’s vote in the General Assembly of the United Nations in favor of a global moratorium on the death penalty is a victory for the Catholic church. It is, however, a result difficult to imagine without the Catholic contribution.
Consider the following footprints of Catholic influence:
* The principal NGO lobbying for the measure, the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, composed of 64 member organizations in various parts of the world, was founded in Rome in 2002 under the auspices of the Community of Sant’Egidio, one of the “new movements” in the Catholic church;
* Ten nations co-authored the resolution: Albania, Angola, Brazil, Croatia, Gabon, Mexico, New Zealand, the Philippines, Portugal, and East Timor. Eight of the ten are majority Catholic states, where numerous Catholic associations and activists, as well as bishops’ conferences, have been in the forefront of abolitionist efforts;
* The nation that formally presented the resolution was Gabon, one of nine majority Catholic nations in Africa. In announcing its own decision in September to remove the death penalty from its statute books, the government of Gabon specifically cited the work of Sant’Egidio;
* When Egypt attempted to scuttle the measure by attaching an anti-abortion amendment, both the Philippines and the Vatican responded by saying that while they would enthusiastically support a separate resolution on abortion, they did not want the pro-life cause to be instrumentalized in order to block progress on the death penalty, thereby saving the resolution;
* Perhaps the diplomatic mainstay of the campaign for a global moratorium over the last 15 years has been Italy, with the strong backing of the Vatican.”
As Allen notes, 104 voted in favor, 54 opposed, 29 abstained, and 5 were absent. Of course, the United States opposed- joining countries like China, Iran, and Sudan. I especially love the fact that Egypt (of all countries) tried to pull the abortion card, but the Vatican has having none of it. On the whole, this is a great victory for Catholic action, and it shows that the “consistent ethic of life” model can bear good fruit. Let’s just hope the good intentions feed through to policy actions, and that the laggards will be shamed into changing their positions.
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