On January 27, Pope John Paul sent out a loud and clear...

On January 27, Pope John Paul sent out a loud and clear message to Americans to oppose abortion, resist the destructive evil of racism and put an end to the unnecessary cruelty of the death penalty. On the final day of his 6-day trip to the Americas, the Pope stressed in a homily during a Mass in St. Louis that Roman Catholics had to give their unfailing support to the protection of human life and to the dignity of all individuals. Setting out his convictions to guide the faithful into Christianity's third millennium, the 78-year-old Pontiff said: "I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary." He said modern society must give criminals the chance to reform. "Modern society has the means of protecting itself without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil," he told the congregation of some 100,000 people, 1,000 priests and more than 200 bishops and cardinals from across the United States. The Pope's plea in Missouri came one day after the state postponed - in deference to his visit - an execution originally due to take place on January 26. Far more dramatically, the Pope put a personal request to Gov. Mel Carnahan, after an interfaith service at St. Louis Cathedral, to spare the life of Darrell J. Mease, a convicted killer of 3 people who was scheduled to be executed on February 10. Carnahan, who has approved the executions of 26 death row inmates as Missouri's Governor, said he was "very greatly" moved by the Pope's appeal, enough to sign on January 28 an order commuting Mease's sentence to life imprisonment, but said it did not bind him to any future action. Carnahan, a Baptist and a Democrat, is running for a Senate seat next year in a state where most voters favor capital punishment. Sodano said the Pope "welcomed the news" that Mease's sentence was commuted. "It represents a significant response to his request in favor of life," Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State said, adding that the Vatican was not disappointed that the Governor said he still favors capital punishment. Sodano declined to speculate whether the Pope would intervene in other cases in Missouri or other states. Referring to the United States, he observed that the fact that some states do not allow the death penalty "is proof that in the (...) conscience of this grand and noble country, the issue is not as quiet as it seems at first glance." St. Louis Archbishop Justin Rigali, said John Paul is under no illusions about the task the church faces in propounding this message. "He's very cognizant of the fact there's a great deal of support for the death penalty," the Archbishop said. "That's why he preaches against it. The Pope realizes he must propose truth, he cannot impose truth," Archbishop Rigali added. "But he's convinced that truth has a very attracting power" aided, he said, by God and the human capacity to reason.