The Catholic Church is anti death penalty, but speaking for my own experience as a non Catholic in Catholic school, I don't know a single Catholic who was even a fraction as concerned about the death penalty as they were about abortion. Abortion dominated our Morality and Justice/Service classes- the death penalty was a blip on the radar. We had monthly school-mandatory assemblies on abortion- I can't recall one about the death penalty. Abortion dominated our "Teen Star" (I guess you could call it sex ed although it wasn't what anyone who went to public school would consider sexual education) classes. And in our 2000 mock election, Bush won our school mock election (where faculty and staff voted as well) by about 90%, even though Republicans are as for the death penalty as they are AGAINST abortion. The Catholic Church does say that to be pro-life involves three things in EQUAL MEASURE: abortion, the death penalty, and euthanasia. But you would NEVER know from any Catholic I know or how they taught us in school. You'd think abortion is the only one that matters. The hypocrisy of it tended to bother me.