Petition promoted by Hands Off Cain - citizens' and parliamentarians' campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in the world by the Year 200, and by the transnational radical party.

ABSTRACT: Text of the petition promoted by "HANDS OFF CAIN" -Citizens' and parliamentarians' campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in the world by the Year 2000 - and by the transnational radical party. The appeal addressed to the Pope underlines the great influence of his pontificate, and therefore the importance of his support in "affirming a new jurisdiction in the world", capable of providing "a single interpretation of the Church's New Catechism". The text also recalls that two important international institutions have materially confirmed this hope: the European Parliament, with a resolution that states that "human life is not for the State to dispose of", and the United Nations Security Council, which, on creating the tribunal for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia, ruled out the use of the death penalty in all cases.

("HANDS OFF CAIN", Appeal to the Holy Father, 1 February 1994)

Holy Father,

millions of faithful await your words on the day in which the Church celebrates the triumph of live over death, whose supreme symbol is the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross.

It is a universal message which overcomes the borders themselves of the Catholic religion.

The same is true for your pontificate: your relentless activity, the authority you are acknowledged make your high moral teaching even more effective. An exemplary confirmation of this is the message sent to you by the president of the United States last Christmas.

Your message will reach a troubled humanity. Expectations and hopes mingle with ill-feelings and deceptions that create complicated social situations, hard to control. Many states have come to regard war and capital punishment as solutions to these problems: these are desperate solutions that lead nowhere.

As recently as in last December, Japan decided to suspend the moratorium of executions, while the President of the Philippines signed a decree that reintroduces the death penalty; the Catholic Brazil is following in the same direction. Nor has 1994 opened in a more encouraging way: in the United States the new year opened with an execution in Idaho, the first in 37 years. In many East European countries, Parliaments are discussing the new constitutions and with them the decision on the death penalty. Capital punishment is not a legacy of the past: it has by now become the horizon of our future.

The choir of voices that cry out against the war lords of the world is massive yet impotent. No voice speaks out instead against the death penalty. That is why, Holy Father, we are addressing ourselves to you, so that with the help of your authoritative words a new legislation be created, providing a single interpretation of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church. From the Book we have taken the imperative "Hands Off Cain", and we have embraced it to affirm a new individual right that lays down the threshold of that irreducible human value that makes us into a human community, as the United Nations Secretary-General said at the Wien conference.

Two important international situations, in 1993, have confirmed this hope. In a Resolution, the European Parliament has ruled that human life cannot be disposed of by the State. The United Nations Security Council - on establishing the court of crimes in ex-Yugoslavia - has ruled out any use of the death penalty.

An important signal comes also from the legislators of the United States: with a restriction on weapons sales they have opened up new horizons, possible emancipating themselves from the weight that is traditionally exerted by the public opinion.

We believe a new era is dawning where a renewed attention and a new possibility of forming the consciences and establishing common rules allow us to advance two requests: a universal moratorium of executions, and with it the necessary creation of a permanent court for crimes against humanity.

The suspension of capital punishment - wherever your payer and the petition which we signatories, through you, address to the rulers of the earth will be listened to - will give the necessary time to promote the creation of a new legislation of the individual and an international jurisdiction. Millions and millions of people recognize the Cross as a symbol of peace, love and brotherhood. Few, however, remember that it was the terrible instrument of capital punishment. On the day in which the liturgy sends out its highest message of peace and life, we await a sign of hope from your lips, so that the self-proclaimed right to kill another man become a memory of the millenium that is coming to a close.