Not the best of all possible worlds: A litany of distressing news in my local newspaper

 This morning, I scanned my local newspaper as I sipped my first cup of coffee and was slammed with a litany of depressingly lousy news. 

First, Anthony Robinson, a 17-year-old high school student, was shot and killed just after getting off a school bus. The police arrested a 16-year-old and charged him with first-degree murder. 

Second, the Baton Rouge police charged a third student with felony hazing after Caleb Wilson, a fraternity pledge at Southern University, died from injuries he received during a hazing ceremony.

Third, a federal judge halted the scheduled execution of Jessie Hoffman Jr., a convicted murderer, to consider Hoffman's argument that execution by nitrogen gas constitutes "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of his constitutional rights.

And there's more. Ashley Lights, a 39-year-old mother, was arraigned on charges of criminal abortion for reportedly giving her teenage daughter abortion-inducing drugs that Lights ordered online from New York.

All these news stories are depressing, but they're particularly dispiriting because they highlight our society's inability to solve our most profound and pervasive social problems.

The United States has struggled with the issue of school violence since the Columbine school massacre more than 25 years ago. Yet a 16-year-old Baton Rouge kid was apparently able to obtain a loaded pistol and gun down a high school student.

Louisiana strengthened its anti-hazing law after Max Gruver, an LSU fraternity pledge, died of alcohol poisoning in 2017. One LSU student was sentenced to prison for negligent homicide in the wake of that tragedy, but fraternity hazing continues in Louisiana.

And then there's the ongoing litigation to stop capital punishment in this country, which has stretched out over decades while more than 2,000 men and a few women sit on death row.

I'm adamantly opposed to the death penalty for one reason: the practice brutalizes our society. Nevertheless, I don't understand why one man's execution is delayed in Louisiana to determine whether death by nitrogen gas is unconstitutional while a man in South Carolina is executed by a firing squad.

I'm also troubled about the criminal case against Ashley Lights, the mother who allegedly obtained abortion-inducing drugs from a state where such drugs are legal and then gave them to her daughter in Louisiana, where abortion is a crime.

Like most Americans, I believe abortion is wrong, but I'm sympathetic to women caught in desperate circumstances or who become pregnant through incest or rape. The prosecution would not want me on the jury if Ms. Lights's case goes to trial.

Most of the issues highlighted in my morning newspaper will be resolved in the courts, but the larger issues that these cases symbolize will continue to fester for many years. These events remind me that I do not live in the best of all possible worlds and that my puny efforts will do little to make the world a better place.

Voltaire is right to remind us that all we can do in this world of violence and injustice is cultivate our gardens.

My spring garden is planted in tomatoes, eggplants, potatoes, and popcorn. If my popcorn is a success, I can at least take comfort in knowing that my homegrown popcorn is better than Orville Redenbacher's.

Jesse Hoffman Jr., scheduled for execution on March 18

My feeble Catholic testament against the death penalty. Capital punishment coarsens us all.

Ten years ago, Pope Francis spoke out against the death penalty. Addressing a delegation from the International Association of Penal Law, the Pope said this: "All Christians and men of good faith are therefore called upon today to fight . . . for the abolition of the death penalty--whether it is legal or illegal, and in all its forms . . . ."

In speaking out against capital punishment, Pope  Francis followed the example of Pope John Paul II, who condemned the death penalty as "both cruel and unnecessary." 

In 2018, Pope Francis revised the Catholic Catechism to make clear that the death penalty is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." Therefore, the Catechism instructed, the Catholic Church would work "with determination to its abolition worldwide."

Catholics confront the reality of capital punishment every time they attend a Mass or contemplate the crucifixes that many Catholics display in their homes. Christ died a horrible, gruesome death--hung naked on a tree and forced to lift his nail-implanted feet just to breathe until he finally died of blood loss and asphyxiation. 

Surely, as Catholics, we are called upon to oppose any kind of execution by the instruments of government, whether by hanging, firing squad, electrocution, or lethal injection. In the way that he died, our Savior calls on us to respect the dignity of life--every life, even the life of the most hardened criminal. After all, Christ reassured St. Dismas on the cross that he would join Christ in paradise on the day of his death.

Catholic opposition to capital punishment is also a way of honoring all our saints and martyrs who died horrible deaths for their faith. Indeed, some of them died deaths by methods even more cruel than the cross.  During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Catholics were publicly hanged, drawn, and quartered, which meant that they were first hanged by the neck, taken down while still conscious, and then eviscerated and sometimes even castrated while still alive.  Their bodies were then pulled apart (quartered) to the delight of watching crowds. St. Edward Campion was executed in just this way.

Capital punishment, whether in its most benign or most malevolent form, degrades the societies that practice it, including the United States.  Our detractors point out that Catholics are far more vociferous when opposing abortion than we are when speaking out against capital punishment. Unfortunately, they are right.

Those of us who are Catholic should follow the examples of Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II and speak out publicly against the death penalty. Let us be guided by  Catechism, which clarifies that capital punishment is contrary to our Catholic faith.

Pope Francis opposes the death penalty.