WASHINGTON (CNS): The execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and the resumption of federally sanctioned executions marks a sad day for the United States, the president of the country’s bishops’ conference said.
Bishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston said that he deeply regretted the execution of McVeigh on June 11.
McVeigh was executed by lethal injection at the federal prison at Terre Haute, Indiana. He had been convicted of murder in the 1995 bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, in which 168 people were killed.
“In an age where respect for life is threatened in so many ways, we believe it is important to emphasise that human life is a gift from God, and no one or any government should presume to kill God’s gift,” Bishop Fiorenza said in a statement released just after the execution was carried out.
“Rather, all of us have the responsibility to protect human life from conception to natural death.”
