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We reverence the life and dignity of every human person and oppose the death penalty, urging support and compassion for the victims of violence and restorative justice for the offenders. Our Corporate Stance of 2002 acknowledged that the death penalty is an attack on the sacredness of all life and the result of a criminal justice system mired in inequity and corruption. In our Vision we articulate our three primary values, one of those primary values is that we “Reverence life.”
In our 2022 Diversity Enactment we are “outraged by systems that oppress (and) dehumanize… .” The Death Penalty is the ultimate act of dehumanization. In that same 2022 Enactment, it states “...we commit to: acknowledge and repent of our complicity... (and) act to dismantle unjust systems... .”
In 2024 we began a Chapter Initiative to "work in various ways to create a movement within the Congregation (Sisters, Associates, Co-Workers, and Seekers) to recall and reinvigorate our Corporate Stance Against the Death Penalty, which was established in 2002 and is even more needed in today's casual culture of death."
2002 Corporate Stance Opposing the Death Penalty (PDF) – December 2002 Signs of the Times article (PDF)