by Renato Martino

About the author: Archbishop Renato Martino is the Vatican’s official emissary to the United Nations. The following viewpoint is taken from an address he presented on February 5, 1999, to the New York University law school.

It is my pleasure to be with you today at New York University as we address the important—and controversial—subject of the death penalty. The issue is a hotly debated one on the international scene, particularly at U.N. headquarters, where one hears more and more from nations a call to abandon its practice, if not its total abolition.

Very recently, during the Holy Father’s [1999] visit to St. Louis, Mo., he renewed his appeal made a month earlier for a consensus to end the death penalty, calling it “both cruel...