July 5, 1902
Eleven-year-old Maria Goretti was the object of twenty-year-old Alessandro Serenneli’s unbridled lust. His relentless attempts to seduce her were repeatedly rejected. On July 5, 1902, consumed by his carnal desires after months of stalking, Alessandro attempted to overpower and violate Maria though the strength of her resistance prevented the rape. Incensed that he could not have his way, Alessandro stabbed Maria fourteen times with a metal file.
“Assunta [Maria’s mother] tried to soothe her daughter’s agony as the ambulance wagon bumped along on that torturous trip to the hospital in Nettuno. The doctors attempted to repair the extensive damage, but could give Assunta no encouragement…
…When she [Maria] opened her eyes, they were transfixed upon the Statue of Our Lady placed at the foot of her bed. Awake she seemed to remember nothing of the previous day’s horrors and wished only to know of the well being of her family.
The parish priest came in to offer her Viaticum, but first she took time to reflect on the good Father’s reminder that Jesus had pardoned those who had crucified Him. As she gazed at the crucifix on the far wall, she said without anger or resentment, I, too, pardon him. I, too, wish that he could come some day and join me in heaven.” – Homily of Pope Pius XII, June 24, 1950, Canonization of St. Maria Goretti (A Saint to Emulate: St. Maria Goretti, Author: Margaret M. Breiling)
St. Maria Goretti forgave her murderer on her death-bed, July 6, 1902.
In October, 1902, Alessandro was tried and convicted under Italian law as a minor and sentenced to 30 years hard labor. His violent personality necessitated that he serve his sentence in solitary confinement.
In 1908, deep in the darkest confines of his sinful misery, Alessandro was mystically visited by Maria.
She appeared in a garden of pure white lilies. Maria picked fourteen lilies and offered them to Alessandro one by one as a gesture of love and in forgiveness for each of the fourteen fatal stab wounds he inflicted on the sweet little martyr of purity.
Alessandro was filled with the Holy Spirit and his heart overflowed with the grace of contrition.
This was Alessandro’s turning point.
He repented and converted in such a dramatically miraculous manner that he served the remainder of his sentence in holy tranquility and was released three years early in 1929 for his exemplary behavior.
He would seek and receive forgiveness from Assunta for the murder of her daughter. Assunta would even love him as a member of her own family.
We do not know whether it was the mother who taught her daughter to forgive or the martyr’s forgiveness on her death-bed that determined her mother’s conduct. Yet it is certain that the spirit of forgiveness motivated relations within the whole Goretti family, and for this reason could be so naturally expressed by both the martyr and her mother. – Pope St. John Paul ll (Message for the Centenary of the Death St. Maria Goretti, July 6, 2002)
Alessandro entered the Franciscan Capuchins as a lay brother and served as a gardener, porter, and general laborer. He testified to the heroic virtue and martyrdom of Maria Goretti for the formal inquiry for the cause of her Beatification. Alessandro attended Maria’s canonization June 24, 1950.
…In the heroic testimony of the saint of Le Ferriere, her forgiveness of the man who killed her and her desire to be able to meet him one day in heaven deserve special attention. This spiritual and social message is of extraordinary relevance in our time. – Ibid
Our hearts are pierced.
How long, O LORD, must I cry for help and you do not listen? Or cry out to you, “Violence!” and you do not intervene? Why do you let me see iniquity? Why do you simply gaze at evil? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife and discord. (Habakkuk 1:2-3)
Habakkuk lived approximately 600 years before Christ and it seems our complaint is not much different from his as we struggle to see the goodness of God in the midst of so much evil and suffering. But there is a difference.
The difference is Calvary, the Cross, and Christ.
As Christians, we understand that God does not restrict our free will. We understand that God has not caused such wickedness to befall His children. The brutal murder of Iryna Zarutska, the Minneapolis mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church, and the assassination of Charlie Kirk is incomprehensible, but, we know from the heart-piercing agony of Calvary on Good Friday – we must trust – that though God has permitted evil to occur, in His infinite love and mercy, He will always bring a greater good from it.
More than 100,000 people attended Charlie’s memorial service in person. Thousands stood for the first time at the State Farm Stadium on September 21st to invite Jesus into their heart while Erika Kirk, along with laypersons and politicians alike, without fear or reservation, shamelessly proclaimed the Gospel to millions via livestream around the world.
Satan hates mercy more than anything else. It is his greatest torment. – Jesus to St. Faustina (Divine Mercy in My Soul Diary, n. 764)
By forgiving the man who murdered her husband, the pierced heart of Erika Kirk has become an image of Divine Mercy. That’s the Turning Point our nation needed. As John Paul II said, ‘Forgiveness demonstrates the presence in the world of the love which is more powerful than sin.’ – Jason Evert on X, September 21
My husband Charlie, he wanted to save young men, just like the one who took his life. That young man, that young man. On the cross, our Savior said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they not know what they do.’ That man, that young man, I forgive him. I forgive him because it was what Christ did and is what Charlie would do. The answer to hate is not hate. The answer we know from the gospel is love and always love. Love for our enemies and love for those who persecute us. – Erika Kirk
Actor, Tim Allen, is emblematic of the movement of mercy and forgiveness as fruit of Erika Kirk’s forgiveness of Charlie’s alleged assassin.
“When Erika Kirk spoke the words on the man who killed her husband: ‘That man … that young man … I forgive him.’ That moment deeply affected me. I have struggled for over 60 years to forgive the man who killed my Dad. I will say those words now as I type: ‘I forgive the man who killed my father.’ Peace be with you all.” – Tim Allen, National Catholic Register
As Christians, we understand that the Church has never declared capital punishment an intrinsic evil – the likes of abortion or euthanasia. In principle, we recognize the authority of the State to impose the death penalty though, as Christians, we are free, without sin, to prudentially oppose the death penalty and work for it’s abolition.
The State’s legitimate authority to impose the death penalty is not in question.
In question is the gross disparity between thousands of Christians applauding Erika’s courageous act of forgiveness in Arizona on September 21 and thousands who applauded this chilling keynote statement in Minneapolis on Sept 22: “Erika Kirk forgave her husbands killer. The state of Utah will inject poison into that killer’s veins until he’s dead.” (TPUSA Event Host)
What of the pierced hearts of that young man’s mother and father? What of that young man’s inviolability and dignity as a child of God?
As Christians, we must refrain from such chest-thumping, vengeful rhetoric rooted more in the Culture of Death than the Culture of Life.
Rather, we should courageously raise our hearts and voices in humble supplication to ask God and ourself:
Is an execution a fitting exclamation point to the legacy of Charlie’s life and the global revival of faith, forgiveness, and generational healing sparked by his death?
Rather, we must unite our voices to Erika’s in conformity with the Gospel, to pray and call our brothers and sisters to pray for “that young man” who, we must remind ourselves and others, is made in the image and likeness of God and who, we must remind ourself and others, has yet to be tried, convicted, and sentenced in a court of law.
No one heals himself by wounding another. – St. Ambrose of Milan
In the latter decade of his pontificate, Pope St. John Paul II advocated for the end of the death penalty with uncompromising fortitude and clarity.
“Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas [1998] for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.” St. Louis, MO, January 1999
“Punishment cannot be reduced to mere retribution, much less take the form of social retaliation or a sort of institutional vengeance.” Jubilee Homily to Prisoners, Rome, July 2002
“…Nor can I fail to mention the unnecessary recourse to the death penalty . . . This model of society bears the stamp of the culture of death, and is therefore in opposition to the Gospel message.” World Day of the Sick, Washington, DC, February 2003
As Jason Jones, founder of The Vulnerable People Project, recently cited: Pope Benedict XVI deepened this approach. He praised nations that had abolished the practice, but he never declared it intrinsically evil. For Benedict, sparing even the guilty was a powerful witness to the dignity of every person in the midst of a dangerous and rapidly ascendant culture of death. – Responding to Pope Leo’s Recent Comments – Part 3: The Death Penalty and Catholic Prudence
“I greet the distinguished delegations from various countries taking part in the meeting promoted by the Community of Sant’Egidio on the theme: No Justice Without Life. I express my hope that your deliberations will encourage the political and legislative initiatives being promoted in a growing number of countries to eliminate the death penalty and to continue the substantive progress made in conforming penal law both to the human dignity of prisoners and the effective maintenance of public order.” – Pope Benedict XVI, Public Audience, Wednesday, November 30, 2011
The current of this advocacy, which runs deeply and powerfully in the Church and the Culture of Life today, unfolded in the revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2267, in 1997 and again in 2018.
Assuming the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm—without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself—the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent.
Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.
Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.
Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.
The Lord is not slow about His promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but all should reach repentance. (2 Peter 3:9)
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and brings no regret, but worldly grief produces death. (2 Corinthians 7:10)
St. Maria Goretti, pray for us. Pray for Erika and her children and pray for that young man.
© 2025 Brian Kravec
Brian is a cradle Catholic, husband and father. He’s a writer, speaker, and the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Possibility Productions, a 501(c)(3) faith event evangelization apostolate in service of the Body of Christ.
