By Paul Dobbyn
THE fate of Bali Nine duo Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran weighed heavily on the minds of participants in this year’s Good Friday Death Penalty Prayer Vigil at Graceville’s Christ the King Church.
Brisbane archdiocese’s Catholic Justice and Peace Commission executive officer Peter Arndt said people attending the Good Friday vigil “would be conscious of the enormous stress that Andrew and Myuran and the others awaiting execution must be under”.
“The delays and uncertainty must be increasing this stress enormously,” he said.
“We can’t predict what will happen, but we can continue to pray for and with Andrew, Myuran and the others on death row.
“All we can do is place our trust in God whose love has the power to support them through everything they face.”
Mr Arndt said St Stephen’s Cathedral dean Fr David Pascoe had approved Australians Against Capital Punishment to hold a vigil in the cathedral grounds for the men.
“That’s if and when 72 hours’ execution notice is given to the men and their families,” he said.
The CJPC started the Graceville vigils seven years ago when former Graceville Christ the King School student Scott Rush was on death row.
Five years ago, monthly vigils also began at the church.
Rush, Chan, Sukumaran and six others were arrested at Bali’s Denpasar Airport in April 2005 as they were about to return home with 8.3kg of heroin strapped to their bodies.
Rush initially received life imprisonment but, after an appeal against the sentence in 2008, this was increased to the death penalty.
In 2011, his sentence was reduced to life imprisonment.
Mr Arndt’s latest comments came amid probably final legal moves to save the Australian men awaiting execution by firing squad on the Indonesian prison island of Nusa Kambangan.
Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan’s lawyers on March 25 were to appeal for a full trial of the men to go ahead.
