I woke up on the morning of April 17 knowing this would be an emotional day for me. It was the birthday of my son John and the second day of Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the U.S.

I have felt a special connection to this Holy Father ever since February of 1994 when I met him in Jerusalem at a very special conference for Christians and Jews worldwide. I had the chance to shake his hand, ask him to pray for my deceased son John and then take his photo. I was so honored.

He did not know, of course, that John and his wife Nancy had been shot to death six months earlier by an 18-year-old invader in their home.

So on April 17, after some special prayers, I turned on the TV and picked up The New York Times. I was surprised to see no headlined story or photo of our Holy Father.

Instead I became distressed when I read: "Justices Uphold Lethal Injection in Kentucky Case." What had been challenged in Kentucky was not the killing itself in a death penalty case but whether lethal injection as a killing method constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

The Supreme Court ruled in a 7-2 decision that even if there is much pain, Kentucky --- and, thus, of course, other states --- can continue using this method for killing death-row inmates.

Chief Justice John Roberts, a Catholic, explained the court's controlling decision, saying, "Simply because an execution method may result in pain, either by accident or as an inescapable consequence of death, does not establish the sort of 'objectively intolerable risk of harm' that qualifies as 'cruel and unusual' under the Eighth Amendment."

Equally disturbing was the quote from another Catholic, Justice Antonin Scalia, responding to Justice John Paul Stevens, who supported the judgment of the court while speaking against capital punishment itself: "But of all Justice Stevens's criticisms of the death penalty, the hardest to take is his bemoaning of 'the enormous costs that death penalty litigation imposes on society,' including the 'burden on the courts and the lack of finality for victims' families.'"

I wanted to shout out to him what my older sister said about the death penalty: "You can't get peace from something that ugly!"

How different are Justice Scalia's words from those of top Vatican official Cardinal Renato Martino, who spoke last September in Rome on the pastoral care of prisoners. Appealing for the life of a death-row inmate in Texas, he called the death penalty an "inhumane and ineffective form of punishment that also impoverishes the society that legitimizes and practices it."

I think it is important for Catholics to be reminded that the U.S. bishops have emphasized that we must be a "culture of life," calling for an end to the death penalty.

Another serious reason for ending the death penalty is the possibility that an innocent person may be executed. Since 1973, 127 people have been released from death row because evidence of their innocence was found.

My children and I appealed to the judge not to seek the death penalty for the killer of John and Nancy. For as my daughter Mary testified:

"Anguished cries for vengeance poison our own hearts and minds. ... Hatred doesn't heal. Mercy, compassion, moving on with life, turning toward good people, walking into the light of love as much as possible, that's what victims need. And our lawmakers have the capacity to help us do that by abolishing the death penalty and along with it the fantasy that it will make the pain go away."

Antoinette Bosco is an author and columnist with Catholic News Service.