Subject: (3) from TRANSNATIONAL
X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0 -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas
X-Comment: The Transnational Radical Party List
10 April 1995
PALM SUNDAY MARCH
"John Paul II: The death penalty is not always necessary"
At the Quirinale Palace, the official residence of the President of the
Republic, President Scalfaro welcomed a delegation of marchers: "You have
my support. I have always been against the death penalty:" On this day,
over three thousand people from all over the world, including many mayors,
took part in the Palm Sunday March for the suspension of the death penalty
and the establishment of an international criminal court on crimes against
humanity. Before meeting President Scalfaro, they were received by the
Mayor of Rome, on their way to the final destination, St. Peter's Square,
to hear the Angelus pronounced by Pope John Paul II. The march was led by
representatives of the international associations Hands Off Cain and There
Is No Peace Without Justice, and of the Radical Party. At the front of the
procession was Lawrence Hayes, the last man to be sentenced to death in New
York, now a social worker after serving a prison sentence in place of the
death penalty, and the Algerian Rai singer Lounes Matoub, a victim of the
Fundamentalist fatwa. In the Evangelium Vitae, the Pope condemned those
countries which still practise the death penalty, saying that "the cases of
absolute necessity, that is when the defense of society cannot be achieved
by any other means, are now very rare, if not almost non-existent". The
other important fact is that the Catholic Church will reconsider the
passage in the New Catechism which sanctions the death penalty.
