Chevalier de la charité

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of Charles « Sonny » Burton, sparing the 75-year-old inmate from a scheduled execution this week and ending more than three decades on death row.

Burton had been set to die Thursday (March 12) for his role in a 1991 robbery that led to the fatal shooting of Douglas Battle inside an AutoZone store in Talladega, Alabama. Though Burton was convicted of capital murder, he was not the person who pulled the trigger.

In announcing the commutation, Ivey said she could not allow the execution to move forward given the circumstances of the case. Burton’s sentence has been reduced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

« I cannot proceed in good conscience with the execution of Mr. Burton under such disparate circumstances. I believe it would be unjust for one participant in this crime to be executed while the participant who pulled the trigger was not, » the governor said.

The gunman in the robbery, Derrick DeBruce, was also originally sentenced to death but that sentence was later reduced to life in prison without parole after courts determined he had received ineffective legal representation during his trial. DeBruce died in prison in 2020.

Advocates for Burton argued that allowing his execution to proceed while the shooter avoided the death penalty showed a stark inconsistency in the justice system.

Burton was one of six men involved in the robbery. Court records show that he had already left the store when the shooting occurred and did not direct DeBruce to fire the fatal shot. Still, a jury convicted him of capital murder in 1992, sending him to Alabama’s death row.

In a recent interview before the governor’s decision, Burton acknowledged his involvement in the robbery while expressing regret.

« I didn’t kill no one, true enough, but I made a mistake by being part of the crime, » Burton said. « I made a mistake, and it seems like all my friends have forgave me. I hope that my friends will remember me and remember that I was a real friend, a good friend. »

The governor’s decision was welcomed by Burton’s family. His daughter, Lois Harris, said she felt immense relief after learning that the execution would not take place.

« I’m thankful. I’m glad she made that decision because it was the right decision, » she told CNN, adding that the news felt like a weight was lifted from her shoulders.

Clemency decisions are rare in Alabama. According to the Death Penalty Information Center, fewer than half of 1% of people sentenced to death in the state have received clemency. Ivey has granted such relief only once before during her time in office.

Advocates who had campaigned for Burton’s life said the governor’s decision corrected a troubling imbalance in the case.

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of the Catholic Mobilizing Network, praised the move and highlighted the broader moral debate surrounding capital punishment.

« The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred, regardless of innocence or guilt. There is no place for the death penalty in that vision of a consistent ethic of life, » she said in a statement. « Today, I’m grateful that Mr. Burton’s life has been spared. »

Murphy also acknowledged the enduring impact on the victim’s family, noting that decades of court proceedings often leave families without the closure they seek.

Battle’s daughter, Tori Battle, had publicly opposed Burton’s execution, writing in an op-ed that carrying it out would not bring healing.

« My opposition to this execution is not a betrayal of my father. It is an affirmation of the values he lived by, and that I have tried to instill in my children. Justice can be measured by our commitment to truth and our willingness to show mercy, » she said.

« Executing a man who did not commit the killing does not heal wounds or strengthen public trust. It weakens it. … I lost my father to violence. Another death will not bring him back. It will only deepen my trauma and the moral cost we all share. »

Burton’s legal team said the governor’s decision brought relief after decades of uncertainty.

« We are grateful to Governor Ivey for carefully considering this case and granting clemency to Mr. Burton, » said Cecilia Vaca, executive director of the Federal Defenders of Middle Alabama, who assisted Burton in the case. « Sonny’s team is with him now sharing the news, and they will have more to say very soon. For now, we are profoundly grateful that Sonny’s life has been spared. »

Opponents of the death penalty also pointed to the case as an example of broader flaws in the capital punishment system.

Laura Porter, executive director of the U.S. Campaign to End the Death Penalty, said it illustrated how unevenly the punishment can be applied.

« The death penalty process is deeply flawed when someone who was not present for the killing faces execution, while the person who committed the murder does not. It is uplifting to see that more and more governors across the ideological spectrum are recognizing problems with death penalty cases, » she said.

The United States’ war with Iran is « not morally legitimate » because it fails several tenets of Catholic just war principles, Cardinal Robert McElroy of Washington said in a March 9 interview with his archdiocesan newspaper.

Responding to questions in The Catholic Standard, McElroy expressed pointed concerns over the military strikes that the U.S. and Israel have been waging on the Islamic Republic of Iran since Feb. 28.

« I have encountered a very significant level of anxiety about the war in Iran, and many parishioners have spoken to me about their worries, » said McElroy, who added that opinions are mixed among those he has spoken with. He said some people are skeptical of another U.S.-led war in the Persian Gulf while others believe the time is right to overthrow Iran’s theocracy.

« Almost everyone rightly believes that the Khamenei regime has been for decades a brutal and repressive government that has spread terrorism throughout the world and should be replaced, » McElroy said.

While spelling out the Catholic Church’s conditions for a just war, the cardinal went on to say that the U.S. decision to go to war against Iran fails to meet that threshold in at least three requirements.

First, McElroy said, the criterion of a just cause is not met because the United States was not responding to « an existing or imminent and objectively verifiable attack by Iran. » The cardinal referenced Pope Benedict XVI, who rejected the concept of preventative war.

« If preventative war were to be accepted morally, then all limits to the cause for going to war would be put in extreme jeopardy, » McElroy said.

The cardinal added that the war on Iran also fails to satisfy the just war criterion of « right intention. »

« One of the most worrying elements of these first days of the war in Iran is that our goals and intentions are absolutely unclear, ranging from the destruction of Iran’s conventional and nuclear weapons potential to the overthrow of its regime to the establishment of a democratic government to unconditional surrender, » McElroy said.

The cardinal added: « You cannot satisfy the just war tradition’s criterion of right intention if you do not have a clear intention. »

McElroy said the Iran war also fails to meet just war teaching « because it is far from clear that the benefits of this war will outweigh the harm which will be done.

« The Middle East is the most unstable region in the world, and the most unpredictable, » McElroy said, adding that the war has already had several unintended consequences.

« Iran’s morally despicable decision to target its neighbors in the region has spread the expanse of destruction, » he said. « Lebanon may fall into civil war. The world’s oil supply is under great strain. The potential disintegration of Iran could well produce new and dangerous realities. And the possibility of immense casualties on all sides is immense. »

The cardinal also described « the immense concern » some have expressed that the ongoing war in the Middle East will « spiral out of control » and embroil the United States in ever greater depth.

While saying that the Catholic Church has « an abiding resistance to war » at the heart of its teaching on war and peace, McElroy noted the church, in « some emergency situations, » has historically allowed a resort to war if six conditions are « clearly and simultaneously met. »

McElroy called on Catholics in his archdiocese to pray for peace and « an immediate end to this conflict. »

« We should pray for our military men and women, » he said. « We should pray for the Christian communities in the Middle East that are the last bastions of Catholic faith there, particularly in Lebanon where the large and spiritually beautiful Catholic community continues to witness to Christianity in the region. »

McElroy added, « Finally, and most importantly, we must [ensure] that this war does not turn into a prolonged conflict, lurching from goal to goal and from strategy to strategy. One of the most important Catholic teachings on war and peace is that nations have the strict obligation to end a war as soon as possible. This is particularly true when the decision to go to war was not morally legitimate, » he said. « There is a logic to war that presses onward, escalating in its dimensions and timeline. Our country has fallen victim to this logic of war in the recent past, especially in the Middle East. We must all work together to forbid this expansionism to lead us into an ongoing morass in Iran. »

McElroy’s interview was published two days after Chicago Cardinal Cupich issued a statement criticizing a social media video posted by the White House Friday featuring footage from the ongoing war in Iran spliced with scenes from action movies.

« A real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game — it’s sickening, » he wrote.

Cupich also noted that the « moral crisis we are facing is not just a matter of the war itself, but also how we, the observers, view violence, for war now has become a spectator sport or strategy game. » 

Cardinal Blase Cupich of Chicago condemned what he called the « gamification » of war, imploring Americans to resist becoming desensitized to the « true costs of war » and to protect their humanity.  

In a statement issued March 7, Cupich took particular aim at a social media video posted by the White House Friday featuring footage from the ongoing war in Iran spliced with scenes from action movies and captioned « Justice the American way. » 

Cupich took issue with the video’s focus on entertainment.

« A real war with real death and real suffering being treated like it’s a video game — it’s sickening, » he wrote. 

Decrying the emerging trend of war gamification — used both as propaganda and as an incentive for combatants — Cupich wrote, « we now live in an era when the distance between the battlefield and the living room has been drastically reduced. »

Criticizing the White House video, Cupich invoked the human cost of the week-long war, including U.S. casualties who he said were « dishonored » by the post, as well as the Iranian school children killed on the first day of U.S. strikes. 

The cardinal also cited prediction markets allowing users to bet on the war – such as the recent settlement by Kalshi for allegedly failing to pay $54 million to those who bet money that former Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah ​Ali Khamenei would leave office by March 1. That people derive entertainment from real world crises, Cupich said, was evidence of a « moral crisis. »

« The moral crisis we are facing is not just a matter of the war itself, but also how we, the observers, view violence, for war now has become a spectator sport or strategy game, » the statement read. 

Despite the administration’s appeal to excitement, Cupich warned that « we lose our humanity when we are thrilled by the destructive power of our military. We become addicted to the ‘spectacle’ of explosions. »

Cupich appealed to the consciences of all Americans, urging them to retain the sacred gift of their humanity.

« I know that the American people are better than this, » Cupich said. « We have the good sense to know that what is happening is not entertainment but war, and that Iran is a nation of people, not a video game others play to entertain us. »

A Chaldean Catholic bishop in California has been arrested and jailed on several financial crimes charges.

Bishop Emanuel Shaleta of the Chaldean Catholic Diocese of St. Peter the Apostle in San Diego was « contacted and detained » March 5 at that city’s international airport while « attempting to leave the country, » according to a statement issued that same day by the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office.

The 69-year-old bishop was arrested for eight counts of embezzlement, eight counts of money laundering and one count of « aggravated white collar crime enhancement » under California law.

The last charge, also known as the state’s « freeze and seize » law, applies in cases of multiple felony fraud offenses or embezzlement resulting in alleged losses of over $100,000.

Shaleta is currently being held in San Diego’s central jail on $125,000 bail, with court approval required for payment and release.

His arraignment takes place March 9 at California’s Superior Court in El Cajon, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office told OSV News.

On March 4, The Pillar — which has posted several stories on the embattled bishop — reported Shaleta « was expected to travel to Rome, » having « submitted his resignation to the Vatican earlier this year. »

The Chaldean Catholic Church is one of the 23 Eastern Catholic churches that together with the Latin Church, headed by Pope Leo XIV as the bishop of Rome, make up the global Catholic Church.

In its press release, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Office said it had been contacted Aug. 19, 2025, by an unnamed representative of St. Peter Chaldean Church in El Cajon, California.

The individual had « provided a statement and documents showing potential embezzlement from the church, » and following an initial investigation, the case was investigated by the agency’s fraud unit, said the sheriff’s office.

The Chaldean Catholic Patriarchate issued a statement regarding the accusations against Shaleta, who was appointed to San Diego in 2017 after serving at the Chaldean Church’s diocese in Toronto.

The patriarchate’s message, shared on the website of the Michigan-based Chaldean Catholic Diocese of St. Thomas the Apostle, said that « some members » of the Diocese of St. Peter the Apostle had filed complaints against the bishop « in relation to the mishandling of certain diocesan funds and allegations of inappropriate relationships. »

« This information has circulated on social media platforms before all facts were fully clarified, » said the patriarchate, stressing that « allegations or complaints require careful and objective review and should not be resolved outside of the appropriate process. »

In addition, said the patriarchate, « the Apostolic See, with the knowledge and cooperation of the Patriarchate, has conducted thorough investigations in order to ascertain the facts and reach a just and impartial decision, so that no one may be wronged. »

The patriarchate added, « The situation has prompted a range of responses from those who devote themselves to the diocese. All perspectives are being taken seriously and require careful review, proper documentation, and time so that the truth may be fully and fairly discerned. »

In February, The Pillar reported that Shaleta had tendered his resignation in late January, following « a Vatican-ordered investigation into allegations of substantial embezzlement and personal misconduct. »

Among the accusations were claims he had taken « hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from his cathedral, attempting to reimburse missing funds with checks signed by him from a cathedral charity account, » said The Pillar.

The outlet also said it had « reviewed financial records indicating that he ‘reimbursed’ his cathedral with checks from its own charity account, signed by him, after reportedly directing a parish tenant and others to make payments to the parish through him in cash, which went unaccounted for. »

Along with the financial misappropriations, Shaleta was « also accused of visiting regularly the Hong Kong Gentlemen’s Club in Tijuana, which operates as a brothel close to the U.S.-Mexican border, » reported The Pillar.

The club’s website describes the establishment as an « adult playground » featuring « 100s of gorgeous international showgirls. »

The investigative think tank InSight Crime, which focuses on criminal dynamics in Latin America and the Caribbean, notes that the club is deeply embedded in the area’s sex work and human trafficking landscape.

Citing « a private investigator’s report sent to the Vatican, » The Pillar said it had learned from retired FBI special agent Wade Dudley that the bishop’s car had been seen in a Hong Kong Club patron parking lot.

In addition, Dudley told The Pillar he had seen the bishop « get picked up by a third-party ride share that exclusively takes customers to that establishment. »

Along with the alleged club visits, the report claimed Shaleta maintained a personal joint bank account with a woman who had been the parish secretary when the bishop was a Michigan pastor. Extended visits between the woman and the bishop in Toronto and in San Diego — to which the woman allegedly moved — were also noted.

The day after the United States and Israel jointly attacked Iran, provoking a new war in the Middle East, Pope Leo XIV called for a return to diplomacy and urged all nations involved to earnestly strive for peace. 

Catholics on social media, however, could not be blamed if they thought the leader of their church had just issued a papal bull condemning President Donald Trump. 

Christopher Hale, who runs the political commentary blog « Letters from Leo, » said on Feb. 28 that if the pope planned to say what a source had revealed that he might the following day, it could be one of his « most forceful and direct public confrontations with President Trump since his election. » 

While the pope’s comments after the Sunday Angelus March 1 hit above the standard Vatican fare of voicing concern over global crises, he notably did not mention the United States or Israel, or the leader of any country, by name. Hale, however, later wrote that the source said the pope had viewed the strikes as both immoral and illegal, words the pope did not use in his address. Hale said that the pope’s comments « made that conviction public — and unmistakable. »

Online, a chorus of commentators on both sides of the ecclessial and political aisle took the pope’s words, both real and alleged, and ran.

« Pope Leo SLAMS Trump’s illegal war against Iran, » wrote Occupy Democrats on X, which has more than 730,000 followers.

Similarly, the Daily Beast, which claims to reach more than 1 million readers daily, ran an article on March 4 insisting that « Pope Leo XIV Can’t Stop Trashing Trump’s Deadly War. »

The site said that the pope had spoken out three times « against Donald Trump’s war in Iran. » 

In contrast with the chorus of online commentators pitting the pontiff against the American president stand the pope’s actual remarks.

In his Sunday address Leo called on « all the parties involved to assume the moral responsibility of halting the spiral of violence before it becomes an unbridgeable chasm. »

Those comments remain a far cry from Hale’s later claim that the pope « demanded that the Trump-Vance White House end its war in Iran. »

The posts from Hale, Occupy and the Daily Beast had received hundreds of thousands of views — enough to provoke significant reaction from social media Catholics on the right. 

Judging by their reactions, it seemed that some on the Catholic right were not particularly happy with the pontiff’s intervention or the left’s framing of it.

« Pope Leo XIV Weighs in on Military Strikes on Iran — Makes Fool of Himself, » read one headline from The Gateway Pundit, an ultra-right wing commentary site with almost a million followers on X. 

« BEWARE: Pope Leo is a very evil and dangerous man doing some of the darkest work of Satan in these last of the last days, » wrote an X account entitled « Operation Heal America. » The account has nearly 200,000 followers and is verified as an official organization by X. 

« Wasson Watch Co, » another account officially verified by X, chastised the pope for allegedly focusing too heavily on the United States without sufficiently castigating the Iranian regime for their violent crackdown on protestors or ongoing nuclear threats. 

Social media users responded to the posts bemoaning the pope’s pacifism as weak, woke and leftist.

Leo did call for peace on three separate occasions since Feb. 28, the day of the initial U.S.-Israeli attack. He said he was following the situation in Iran March 1 and then called generally for peace the next two times. Each intervention was measured and concise, avoiding the firebrand rhetoric that either side of the aisle claimed the pontiff had used.

That did not deter Hale, who wrote in an article, « Three appeals in three days. That is not a coincidence. That is a pope who has decided that silence is no longer an option. »

Yet on his biggest stage yet since the outbreak of the war, Leo did opt for silence.

The pope made no mention of the Middle East or Iran after his Wednesday general audience on March 4, a venue in which popes, including Leo himself have made pointed appeals for peace and directly commented on global affairs. Aside from a previously scheduled (but timely) video wherein his prayer intention of the month was for « disarmament and peace, » Leo has not publicly spoken on the war since.

Instead, the Vatican’s state media channels published an in-house interview with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, who stressed the need for multilateralism without citing any political leaders or nations by name.

The decision from the Vatican read more as a way to get something on the record while biding its time rather than speaking forcefully and risk burning bridges. Notably, the pullback occurred after Israel began its ground invasion of Lebanon, which has a significant Catholic population and was visited by Leo last December.

Similarly, Hale wrote on X that there has been « no harsher critic to U.S. military action in Iran than Pope Leo XIV » in a post that has garnered more than 850,000 views. However the video posted in the post, supposedly meant to back up that claim, showed the pope addressing the ambassadors to the Holy See in a January meeting.

And a quick web search will easily lead one to much harsher critics of U.S. action in Iran.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez explicitly condemned the United States’ track record in the Middle East and called on the international community to « demand with full resolve that the United States, Iran, and Israel take decisive action to stop before it is too late. »

And French President Emmanuel Macron said the U.S.-Israeli strikes were « outside of international law » and that Paris « cannot approve of them. »

With the war just over five days old, there is still plenty of time for reaction and commentary from Leo. If history is any indication, however, his interventions will likely contain a brand of nuance that could be unfamiliar to social media pundits.