Grant, O Lord, that, in all our sufferings here upon earth for the testimony of thy truth, we may stedfastly look up to heaven, and by faith behold the glory that shall be revealed; and, being filled with the Holy Ghost, may learn to love and bless our persecutors by the example of thy first Martyr Saint Stephen, who prayed for his murderers to thee, O blessed Jesus, who standest at the right hand of God to succour all those that suffer for thee, our only Mediator and Advocate. Amen.- Saint Stephen Prayer from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer
T&T Priest
urges reinstatement of death penalty
December
12th, 2016
Trinidad
Guardian:-Disgusted by the daily bloodshed and lawlessness
sweeping the country, Roman Catholic priest Father Ian Taylor is calling for
the death penalty to be swiftly reinstated.
In delivering
the sermon during Mass on Saturday night at the St Charles RC Church in
Tunapuna, Taylor said the country may never come to terms with last week’s
killing of bank employee Shannon Banfield.
Saying that
the “country was in a state,” Taylor demanded that Banfield’s killers from “top
to bottom” face the hangman within the soonest possible time, as he prayed for
justice to be delivered to the young woman’s family.
“Don’t
think that criminals are sorry. These men have become hardened criminals. We
should feel sorry for the victims and you should be sorry for the victims’
families,” he told the congregation.
“If
you take someone’s life then you will pay the penalty of your life.”
He explained
that this was the right of the State, which the Roman Catholic Church had
previously asked the State not to carry out in a show of mercy to criminals.
However, said while he himself would like to see the death penalty reinstated
due to the current level of lawlessness, the Church cannot demand that the
State hang criminals.
“If
the State needs the death penalty to protect its citizenry then let it (State)
do so and let it exercise it knowing that God has given the State the right to
take life if you murder,” Taylor said.
“We
need to pray that the laws in this country are implemented and let it be done
so that criminals will take heed. The country has gone lawless and people need
to be punished for breaking the laws and that includes people in high places
because they are the real criminals. Corrupt men must be brought to justice.”
Banfield, 20
of Mc Carthy Street, Cantaro Village, Santa Cruz, was last seen leaving her
work place—RBL’s Independence Square branch—around 4 pm last Monday. She had
told her mother, Sherry-Ann Lopez, via phone she was leaving work to purchase
items at IAM and company.
Her
decomposing body was found last Thursday in a storeroom of the third floor of
the building located at Charlotte Street, Port-of-Spain.
Taylor said
criminals had become so brazen that they were unafraid of the police and of
being locked up, adding that jail had become “a nice thing where there were
cellphones and even a flat screen TV.”
The priest
also lambasted the Police Service for its poor response when his own church was
recently robbed. He said he had given the police footage from CCTV cameras
showing a man pretending to be a member of the congregation before stealing the
offering and calmly walking out of the church.
“After
I put everything on a flash drive and give it to the police, the policeman turn
and ask me, ‘Well father, what you want to do?’ Imagine that. I should have
told him show me where the man is so I could run after him myself,”
Taylor said.
He called for
prayers to be offered up to the Police Service, which he said desperately
needed to weed out its rogue cops.
On the case
where a murder accused was allowed to conduct business at a bank unsupervised
by police, Taylor said, “That is how we operating now. Somebody smoking
something.”
He called on
the congregation and the wider community to join forces to combat the crime
scourge, firstly by taking communities back from criminal elements. He said
discussions were being held to have activities within the parish so that peace
could be restored.
Taylor’s
sermon was not the only case in which citizens showed their disgust over
Banfield and other people’s murders over the weekend. There were two public
events in memory of Banfield yesterday in Port-of-Spain, while the families of
those murdered over the weekend also spoke openly about the crime scourge and
the police and Government’s inability to get a handle on it.
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Asked after
the Mass whether the death penalty would be a deterrent, Taylor said no one,
not even criminals, wanted to die, adding, however, that the death penalty must
be exercised frequently. He said personally he did not hold the position that
the death penalty should be abolished.
“Secondly,
it must be a form of retribution. There must be a form of punishment to suit
the crime. When you commit murder the penalty is your life and that is what the
scripture says,” he said.
“And
the State also has the duty to protect its citizens, because when a person’s
life is gone they cannot repeat crimes but when a person gets 15 years and they
come out they can repeat what has happened.”
On whether he
was worried there may backlash regarding his statements, Taylor said, “I think
for myself.”
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