Some 2,000 years ago on the first Good Friday, in response to public pressure the Roman Empire executed our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On that day Jesus suffered the pain of the world's sins --- including the sin of capital punishment.

The barbaric execution of Jesus should have inspired an end to any Christian support for the death penalty. And actually it did, at least for the Catholic Church's first 300 years. During that era, the earliest disciples of Christ committed themselves to absolute nonviolence --- no abortion, no war, no capital punishment.

Unfortunately, when Christianity became legalized, many began to relax the prohibition against violence --- including capital punishment. It even came to the point that during the Middle Ages some people convicted of teaching heresy were condemned to death by certain church officials.

And still to this day, countless Catholics believe in the use of the death penalty, even though Pope John Paul II clearly called for its abolition.

In his prophetic encyclical, "The Gospel of Life," he taught that capital punishment should only be used when it is impossible to defend society in any other way. And he added this key sentence: "Today, however, as a result of steady improvement in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare if not practically nonexistent."

Interestingly, before Benedict XVI was elected pope, as head of the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, he said, John Paul's "reservations about the death penalty are even stronger than those already present in the catechism and are a real development."

The future pope added that the next edition of the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" would need to be revised to reflect John Paul's more powerful teaching against capital punishment. And, indeed, the second edition echoes John Paul's firm call for society to move beyond the death penalty.

The church's efforts to end capital punishment are rooted in the God-given dignity of every human being --- even murderers.

Furthermore, our faith calls us to promote the common good of all. But the good of society is not served when our laws teach that violence is wrong sometimes --- but not other times. This inconsistency makes no sense and is a tremendous obstacle to building a world based on Christ-like love.

I remember a Catholic News Service photo of a Marianist brother demonstrating in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building. On his shirt was the message: Why do we kill people who kill people, to show that killing people is wrong?

Study after study confirms that capital punishment is not a deterrent to murder. For instance, according to Amnesty International, the murder rate in Canada has dropped by 40 percent since the death penalty was abolished in that country.

And then there is always the chance that an innocent person will be put to death. Since 1972 more than 120 people in U.S. prisons have been exonerated from death row.

Over 88 countries --- including every nation in Europe --- have completely abolished the death penalty. However, countries that our government has condemned, such as Iran, Syria, North Korea and Sudan, continue -- like the United States --- to execute human beings.

Jesus' life did not end with his execution on Calvary. Resurrection had the final word. In the spirit of the risen Christ, let us rise from all that dehumanizes us --- including capital punishment.

Tony Magliano is a pastoral associate at the Shrine of the Little Flower Parish in Baltimore