Videos

The federal death penalty system is broken, unfair, and unjust.

This reflection was originally shared at CMN's virtual First Friday Prayer Vigil on Oct. 1, 2021. Learn more about our monthly prayer vigils and RSVP to attend.

"Then the woman said to Peter,
'You are not also one of this man’s disciples, are you?'
He said, 'I am not.'
Now the slaves and the police had made a charcoal fire because it was cold and were standing around it warming themselves.
Peter was also standing there keeping warm."

Today is the feast of Saint Maximilian Kolbe, patron saint of prisoners and the pro-life movement, and the victim of a state-sponsored execution. There's 

A group of Catholic ministry leaders, seasoned restorative justice practitioners, and people impacted by harm and crime offer their take.

EWTN’s Kate Scanlon speaks with Syl and Vicki Schieber, who suffered the violent murder of their daughter, Shannon, yet hold true to the teachings of the church and reject the death penalty.

She also interviews CMN Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy and Archbishop Paul S. Coakley, chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, to hear their hopes for death penalty abolition at the federal level.

Watch a recording of the Jan. 2021 virtual public dialogue featuring Bishop Daniel Flores, CMN's Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, Sr. Helen Prejean, CSJ, and Rev. Dr. Jack Sullivan, Jr.

This 7-minute video reflection by Archbishop Joseph F. Naumann of Kansas City, Kansas was recorded on the occasion of the federal government's execution of Keith Dwayne Nelson on August 28, 2020.

In this moving testimony, Archbishop Naumann shares about his own experience as the son of a murder victim and affirms the Church's resounding call to end the practice of capital punishment.

Watch the recorded Virtual Prayer Vigils held in lamentation of the federal government's 2020 restart of federal executions after a 17-year hiatus.