The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a 6-3 vote.

“I returned to my Catholic upbringing, professing a faith I did not completely feel, because I was suffering and needed answers from God,” writes Lyle C. May, who is on death row in North Carolina.

“We are grateful that the governor has prevented an irreparable mistake.”

We must ask ourselves whether executing people on death row is truly a matter of public safety or merely a state-sanctioned tool for exacting the public’s demand for revenge.

Last year, Pope Francis said, “There can be no stepping back" from the church’s opposition to the death penalty. It is time to put this teaching into action and stop executions in the United States for good.

God who is justice, let the systems of justice we build on earth reflect your love for all creation. Let them value redemption over punishment, future over past, life over death.