JustCommunity Season 3

Embracing Christ in the Seamless Garment

2011 Focus: The Death Penalty

Who is the Christ in the Seamless Garment?

Each and every human being, but most especially the weak and vulnerable: the child in the womb… the convict on death row… the terminally ill woman… the frail, dependent elder… all are clothed in the human dignity that is our identity in Christ. Christ awaits our embrace in all. The “seamless garment” teaching insists that all human life is one indivisible whole: sacred to God in every individual life. Only God has the right to choose the moment of death for each one of us.

Each year during the winter season of JustCommunity, we will consider one of the Seamless Garment teachings. In 2011, with three executions currently planned in Kentucky, we have chosen to focus on the death penalty teaching.

The Voices: Real People, Real Stories

Our 2011 Seamless Garment season is laid out according to the four rationale presented by the US Catholic Bishops in their opposition to the death penalty. Rather than focus on the teaching documents, we offer a selection of compelling voices: real people and their real stories. Church teaching documents and supporting information are also linked to each week’s reflection guide.

We invite all our community members to “visit with the voices” that will be offered throughout this Season. Follow the guide throughout the four weeks: each week you will be invited to encounter several voices through talks, web-based videos, articles. Explore the supplementary material offered in our parish library and on our website.
Click here for the Season 3 Reflection Guide

The Teaching and Other Resources

For those who wish to study the documents, as well as current facts and figures about the death penalty today, click here: General Resource on the Death Penalty
 

The Conversation: Listening to One Another’s Voices

All of the Seamless Garment issues bring our diversity of perspective to the fore, and challenge us with the Gospel perspective as it is articulated by the Church. Every season that we consider a Seamless Garment teaching, we will follow a similar format of voices and reflection that reaches its highpoint with a Community Conversation. We fully expect and welcome a diversity of opinion as we struggle to embrace this teaching. Our conversations will always be planned for safe, respectful and open sharing, that is framed in prayer.

The 2011 Seamless Garment Conversation will take place on Saturday, February 19, 2:30-5:00 PM, in the Epiphany Community Center. Three witnesses for the teaching will join us: a victim of a current Kentucky death row inmate, a former and a present Catholic chaplain to those on death row. Please come bring your voice to the conversation!

To sign up, click here: Conversation Registration. (Registration isn't absolutely required, but it sure is helpful to the planners for this event! If you do decide at the last minute that you are called to the conversation, please come even if you haven't registered.)

Witnessing for Life: Joining Our Voices for Change

The US Catholic Bishops and our Pope, along with religious and civil leaders throughout the world, call for an end to the use of the death penalty. Each one of us can join the many voices that have responded. Join our Seamless Garment team for a presentation on The Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty Tuesday, February 22, 7:00 PM in the Community Center

Become a member of the Kentucky Coalition Against the Death Penalty, a group that is supported by the Catholic Conference of Kentucky. This group receives Ten Percent funds from our community.

Become a member of Catholics Against Capital Punishment.