Catégorie : Vie de l’église

The other day, the news site Axios called this « the first presidential election in half a century in which neither candidate is openly telling voters much about their religion or faith. » That’s not quite true.

In 2016, for example, Donald Trump didn’t tell voters much about his religion or faith, forcing those interested to exhume old stories about his attachment to the late celebrity pastor Norman Vincent Peale. And in a departure from her faith-heavy 2008 campaign for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clinton didn’t have much to say in 2016 about her long-standing Methodist identity either.

Be that as it may, campaign coverage this year has certainly been light on attention to the religious lives of the candidates and their running mates. The journalistic posture has pretty much been: If you don’t tell, we won’t ask.

So, what do we know?

The most recent info on Trump comes via RNS reporter Jack Jenkins eliciting from the then-president four years ago that though he had long identified as a Presbyterian, he was now considering himself a nondenominational Christian. There are a good 20 nondenominational Christian churches within hailing distance of Mar-a-Lago but so far as we know (or expect), Trump doesn’t attend any of them.

Kamala Harris has recounted how she attended both a Black Protestant church and a Hindu temple growing up — an expression of her Black and Indian parentage. But her membership as an adult has been in San Francisco’s Third Baptist Church, a historic Black congregation dating back to 1852. After President Joe Biden announced his withdrawal from the race, Harris called the pastor, the Rev. Amos C. Brown, and asked him to pray for her. He went on to give a prayer at the Democratic National Convention.

A flurry of press attention to Brown followed, with right-wing media doing its best to portray the pastor, who is also president of the San Francisco NAACP, as another version of Barack Obama’s controversial pastor, Jeremiah Wright. “You’re going to love this,” Fox News’ Sean Hannity chortled, pointing to a 2021 sermon where Brown called America a “racist country.”

Nothing much has come of this attack. That may be because the 83-year-old Brown, a native of Jackson, Mississippi, and graduate of Morehouse College (where he was tutored by Martin Luther King Jr.), is a far more mainstream figure than Wright. It may also be because Harris, conscious of how the Wright controversy shook up Obama’s candidacy in 2008, has steered clear of talking about her faith on the campaign trail. Of course, that’s not something politicians in California tend to do much anyway.

In the Midwest, where both vice presidential candidates come from, they often do talk about their faith. But those two, these days, barely.

Tim Walz has, to be sure, not been shy about identifying himself as a Minnesota Lutheran, which is to say a member of the mainline Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. In his Aug. 6 remarks accepting Harris’ offer to be her running mate, he offered his own version of the most famous of Jesus’ injunctions (Matthew 7:12): « In Minnesota we respect our neighbors and the personal choices that they make. Even if we wouldn’t make the same choice for ourselves, there’s a golden rule: Mind your own damn business! »

Beyond that, Walz has not done much to connect his policy views with his faith.

The most interesting religious trajectory on the two tickets belongs to JD Vance, taking him from a weak evangelical upbringing to adolescent atheism to a conversion to (right-wing) Catholicism. It’s a journey he described not long ago in some detail, and the press has not hesitated to write about it. But like the other candidates, he doesn’t talk about it on the stump.

Unlike the others, however, Vance gladly subjects himself to interviews — including interviews with journalists who are not part of his ideological world. It would be nice if one of them asked him about, say, how he feels about the Catholic position on the death penalty, and about Pope Francis’ position on immigrants, and about Francis and his magisterium generally.

It would also be nice if, as the Democratic candidates begin to give one-on-one interviews (beginning with Stephanie Ruhle interviewing Harris on MSNBC), reporters and media outlets would go ahead and press them to speak about the role of their religion in their lives and policy positions. And sure, maybe Hannity et al. could do the same with Trump.

Maybe by now the nondenominational Christian has learned how to offer his version of Matthew 7:12. Call it the Gilded Rule: Whatever you don’t want men to do to you, do it to them.

The Catholic Church cannot be credible in its mission of proclaiming Christ unless it acknowledges its mistakes and bends down « to heal the wounds we have caused by our sins, » Pope Francis said.

In an unusual penitential liturgy Oct. 1, the pope had seven cardinals read requests for forgiveness that he said he wrote himself « because it was necessary to call our main sins by name. »

The sins included abuse, a lack of courage and commitment to peace, lack of respect for every human life, mistreatment of women or failure to acknowledge their talents and contributions, using church teaching as weapons to hurl at others, lack of concern for the poor and a failure to recognize the dignity and role of every baptized person in the church.

The penitential liturgy with Francis in St. Peter’s Basilica concluded a two-day retreat for the 368 members of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, which was set to open with Mass in St. Peter’s Square Oct. 2 and run through Oct. 27.

In what it believes and how it proclaims the faith, Francis said at the service, the church is « always relational, and only by healing sick relationships can we become a synodal church, » one in which all members listen to each other and share responsibility for its mission.

Sin damages the essential relationships between an individual and God and among believers, he said. « Just as everything is connected in good, it is also connected in evil. »

The liturgy included the testimonies of three witnesses to crime and sin: Laurence Gien, who as an 11-year-old boy in South Africa was raped by a priest; Sara Vatteroni, who works for the Italian bishops’ conference in assisting migrants rescued from the Mediterranean Sea, accompanied by Solange, a migrant from the Ivory Coast; and Sister Deema Fayyad, a member of the Al-Khalil Monastic Community in Syria, talking about the impact of war.

Gien told the pope and synod members, « The faces of the abused are too often blurred, hidden behind a veil of secrecy that the church, historically, has been complicit in maintaining. This anonymity serves to protect the perpetrators rather than the victims, making it harder for survivors to find justice and for communities to heal. »

Retired Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston, former president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, read the request for pardon of abuse.

« How much shame and pain I feel when considering especially the sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable people, abuses that have stolen innocence and profaned the sacredness of those who are weak and helpless, » the cardinal said, reading the prayer written by the pope.

« I ask forgiveness, feeling shame, for all the times we have used the condition of ordained ministry and consecrated life to commit this terrible sin, feeling safe and protected while we were profiting diabolically from the little ones and the poor, » he continued. « Forgive us, Lord. »

Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for Laity, the Family and Life, read the pope’s prayer asking forgiveness, especially on behalf of men in the church, « for all the times that we have not recognized and defended the dignity of women » or silenced or exploited them, especially religious women.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, read Pope Francis’ prayer expressing « shame for all the times that in the church, especially us pastors who are entrusted with the task of confirming our brothers and sisters in the faith, have not been able to guard and propose the Gospel as a living source of eternal newness, (instead) ‘indoctrinating it’ and risking reducing it to a pile of dead stones to be thrown at others. »

In his homily at the service, Francis said the synod could not « invoke God’s name without asking for forgiveness from our brothers and sisters, from the Earth and all creatures. »

« How could we be (a) synodal church without reconciliation? » the pope asked. « How could we claim to want to walk together without receiving and giving forgiveness, which restores communion in Christ? »

On the eve of the synod, he said, it is important for church members to confess in order to « restore trust in the church and toward her, a trust shattered by our mistakes and sins, and to begin to heal the wounds that do not stop bleeding, breaking ‘the chains of wickedness.' »

Francis prayed that God would grant the church forgiveness.

« We ask forgiveness, feeling shame, from those who have been wounded by our sins, » he said, asking God to « give us the courage of sincere repentance for genuine conversion. »

And, turning to several dozen young people seated near him, Francis also asked forgiveness for all the times « we have not been credible witnesses » of faith.

The priests of St. Eugene Parish in Asheville, North Carolina, were doing their best to help people suffering from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, which left at least 30 people dead in Buncombe County.

Maryknoll Fr. Doug May, who has been based out of St. Eugene while doing mission promotion tours for the last nine years, called the situation « surreal » and said people would « need each other to survive and get on with our lives once we get through this. »

May spoke to NCR via WhatsApp, from a Verizon emergency outpost in downtown Asheville Sept. 30, four days after Hurricane Helene hit Florida’s Big Bend region. Rain was already falling in Western North Carolina when the hurricane hit. Asheville experienced more than 17 inches of rain; Busick, North Carolina, about 40 miles northeast of Asheville, received more than 30 inches of rain by Sept. 28.

« Asheville has not experienced such devastating rains, winds, flooding and an almost total breakdown of the infrastructure for over a century, » May told NCR. « With few exceptions, we’ve had no electricity, water or telecommunications for the last five days. Crews are gradually clearing major and secondary roads of downed trees, downed power lines and landslides. »

« Generally, there are no current means to text or call, » he said. « There are approximately 30 people standing around and sitting in their cars trying to contact family and friends to assure them that they are safe and hear their voices. »

May said that, just as during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the priests of St. Eugene were « doing our best to offer weekday and weekend Masses by candlelight for those who show up » and were making emergency calls, « provided that folks have a way of contacting Fr. Pat Cahill, the pastor, or me. »

For a few hours at one point, the parish had water and power. One parishioner came to the rectory to take a shower; another came to fill up a tank with water; and some parishioners came to offer the priests food.

May visited a nursing home Saturday to anoint one woman and her sister who contacted him, and Cahill « actually witnessed two marriages by candlelight. » May said brides were upset because their « reception venues were wiped out by the flood. »

« Many of us are still in shock that we’ve been so vulnerable and that it’s already taken several days to get the basic infrastructure up and running again after the political powers that be assured us that they were prepared, » he said.

« As in most crisis situations, one witnesses the best and worst of humanity. Folks are reaching out to help with food and water while there are fights in lines waiting for gas, » he added.

Asheville is part of the Charlotte Diocese, which has a link for giving to help storm victims through its Catholic Charities agency here: https://ccdoc.org.

Hurricane Helene, with sustained winds of 140 mph, made landfall in a sparsely populated area of Florida, then left a path of destruction across the Southeast.

By midday Sept. 30, the death toll from the hurricane had surpassed 100, with deaths in North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The toll was expected to rise as rescue and recovery operations continued.

By late Sept. 29, more than 2 million customers remained without power in the Southeast, the Associated Press reported. The states’ officials were coordinating with the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Scientists have repeatedly found that climate change is supercharging hurricanes and other tropical storms as they absorb more heat from warmer ocean waters, providing fuel for heavier rainfall and higher storm surge once they make landfall.

Human activity, primarily burning fossil fuels (coal, oil, gas), is the primary driver of climate change. Catholic and other faith leaders have pointed persistently to the disproportionate harm the impacts of rising temperatures have on poor and marginalized communities.

In eastern Tennessee, Unicoi County Hospital was so flooded Sept. 27 that at least 54 people were rescued from the roof and more were rescued by boat. On Sept. 30, officials said more than 40 people remained missing, and at least 100 first responders were searching debris.

In Erwin, the county seat, Glenmary missionaries at St. Michael the Archangel mission mobilized to help people with meals, water, cleaning supplies, and other support.

« The future needs will be great and will go on for months, » said an appeal on the Glenmary Home Missions site.

Pope Francis on Sept. 29 strongly condemned the disproportionate use of military force for the purposes of retaliation and said that any nation that violates this principle is « immoral. »

« The defense must always be proportionate to the attack, » said Francis when asked about the Sept. 27 assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah by Israeli forces in Lebanon that has put the region on the brink of an all-out war. 

While Francis said he did not know the specifics of the situation, he put his palm into his face as a reporter recounted the escalating events in the Middle East and warned against « dominating tendencies. »

The pope recounted that he phones the Catholic parish in Gaza on a daily basis and they inform him of the latest developments, including the « cruelty » taking place.

« All war is immoral, » said the pope, « but disproportionate retaliation is immoral. »

The pope’s remarks came during a brief 20-minute in-flight press conference en route back to Rome following a Sept. 26-29 journey to Luxembourg and Belgium, a trip where the pontiff was repeatedly rebuked for the Catholic Church’s handling of clergy abuse and its positions on women.

Just moments after Francis’ Sept. 28 visit to the Université Catholique de Louvain, the storied Catholic institution sent out a press release expressing « incomprehension and disapproval » of the pope’s rhetoric on women.

The statement decried the pope’s description of women as a « fertile welcome » as « deterministic and reductive. »

On the plane, however, the pope rejected criticism that his position was conservative and hit back by saying the university’s response was prefabricated and sent the moment he finished speaking.

« In the life of the church, women are superior because the church is woman, » said Francis, while doubling-down on his long-held position that the « church is woman, because the church is the spouse of Jesus. »

« To masculinize the church, to masculinize women, is not human, it’s not Christian, » said the pope.

« An exaggerated feminism, which means that women are chauvinists, does not work, » he continued. « What works is the feminine church being greater than the priestly ministry. And this is not often considered. »

Francis was also asked on the plane about his praise of Belgium’s late King Baudouin, who, in 1990, abdicated the throne for a day in order to avoid signing a parliament bill that legalized abortion in the country.

« You want a politician that wears pants, » the pope told reporters, who again repeated his belief that he believes abortion to be the equivalent of hiring a « hit man, » and he believes the matter is not up for debate.

On Sept. 28, the pope made an unscheduled stop to pray at Baudouin’s tomb, and a statement from the Holy See press office said he hoped that today’s Belgians would look to his example at a time when new « criminal laws » are under consideration.

At present, abortion is permissible until the 12th week of pregnancy, though some lawmakers are currently pushing to expand the legal window from 12 to 18 weeks.

Prior to leaving the country, the pope presided over a Mass that drew a crowd of some 40,000 Catholics, where — speaking off the cuff — Francis lamented the recent « scandals » that have plagued the Belgian church.

« There is no room for abuse in the church, » the pope declared. « I ask everyone, don’t cover up abuse! »

« Evil must not be hidden, it must be in the open … so that the abuser is judged, whether they be a layman or a laywoman, a priest or a bishop, that they be judged. The word of God is clear, » said Francis.

The pope’s remarks were met with sustained applause by a crowd that included Belgium’s royal family, including King Philippe who on Sept. 27 told the pope that it had taken « far too long » for the cries of victims to be heard and acknowledged by the church.

On Sept. 27, as he concluded his first full day in the country, the pope held a private meeting with 17 abuse survivors and, according to a Vatican statement, « expressed shame for what they suffered as children. »

En route back to the Vatican, Francis recalled this meeting and insisted that he will study the requests made by the victims, which among other things, included to help concrete compensation plans that the pope said are currently too small.

« We have the responsibility to help the victims, » he said. « We must go forward. »

Pope Francis on Sept. 28 slammed the « arrogant indifference » of powerful leaders who put financial interests over efforts to save the planet and said a conversion of the human heart is necessary to combat climate change.

« As long as markets are given pride of place, then our common home will continue to suffer injustice, » Francis said during an exchange with students at the Université Catholique de Louvain.

« Ecological issues have become increasingly urgent because of the arrogant indifference rooted in the hearts of the powerful, who so often give preference to economic interests, according to which financial markets are the sole arbiters determining whether an appeal is to be taken up or silenced, » the pope during his second full day of his Sept. 27-29 visit to Belgium.

The pope’s remarks came in response to a letter written by university professors and researchers who have been meeting regularly to study Francis’ 2015 landmark environment encyclical, Laudato Si’, ahead of the pope’s visit here to celebrate the 600th anniversary of the university’s founding. 

During his speech, the pope said that the heart of the Catholic Church’s « ecological program » is the idea that people must steward the earth for future generations

« The beauty of the gift of creation summons us to a great responsibility, for we are guests, not despots, » said Francis, whose namesake is the 13th-century saint known for his care for creation.

Francis’ visit to Belgium got off to a bumpy start on Sept. 27 when both the country’s king and prime minister delivered blistering criticism of the church’s handling of clergy abuse cases and the rector of the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven) challenged the pope on issues related to women and LGBTQ people. His second day here has primarily been dedicated to spotlighting the church’s social teaching — particularly its commitment to migrants, fighting climate change and serving the poor.

And the pope himself led by example, beginning the day with a surprise visit to a local parish in the Belgian capital that offers free breakfast for migrants and homeless people. He also met privately with two refugee families — one Christian family from Syria and a Muslim family from Djibouti, Africa.

During his morning visit to the parish of St. Gilles, the pope sat at a table and shared croissants and coffee with 10 people before heading to the city’s National Basilica of the Sacred Heart to meet with the country’s Catholic leaders. 

In a country that was once entirely Catholic, but has witnessed rapid secularization — due to both shifting demographics and fallout from clergy abuse scandals — the pope said that the only way to evangelize was to offer an authentic witness to the faith, especially to those most in need.

« This present crisis, like every crisis, is a time given in order to shock us, to make us question and to change, » he said. 

Priests, he said at the basilica, should not focus solely on « just preserving or managing a past legacy, » but instead should be « pastors who are in love with Jesus Christ and who are attentive to responding to the often implicit demands of the Gospel as they walk with God’s holy people. »

The pope’s words — and visit — come as the church here has been forced to both reckon with its past but also rethink its future. While Mass attendance has plummeted, more than half the country’s hospitals are Catholic run, as are many of the country’s schools and social service agencies.  

As they contemplated how to move forward in the modern world, the pope repeated one of his favorite rejoinders that « there is room for everyone in the church, » and left them with a charge to to be a church that « offers everyone an opening to the infinite, and that knows how to look beyond. »

« This is the church that evangelizes, that lives the joy of the Gospel and practices mercy, » he said.

Later on Sept. 28, the pope was expected to meet privately with Jesuits. On Sept. 29, prior to turning to Rome, he will celebrate Mass for an expected crowd of more than 35,000, marking the first papal Mass here in nearly 30 years.  

Cristina Bautista has never stopped searching for her son, who was among the 43 students who disappeared in a 2014 attack that has never been solved. She searches for two simple reasons: No one else will do it and the government investigations repeatedly run into roadblocks — often owing to a lack of political will.

« These 10 years were a simulation of looking for our children, » Bautista told OSV News. « If it were real, for real, our children would not be absent for these 10 years. It’s not knowing anything about our children. »

The Sept. 26, 2014, attack on the students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School, a rural teachers college for young men, shocked Mexico, which had become seemingly inured to grizzly stories of drug cartel violence. Ten years later, the case remains in the realm of impunity, despite widespread societal outrage, parental searches and Mexican and international investigations.

Ayotzinapa Rural Normal School is part of a network of teacher-training colleges established decades ago to bring education to rural areas. Over time, the schools have become deeply involved with social issues.

The night the students disappeared they had commandeered buses in the city of Iguala — located 190 miles south of Mexico City in the country’s heroin-producing heartland — and had planned to travel to the capital for an annual protest against a previous atrocity: the 1968 attack on students on the eve of the Summer Olympics, according to a government truth commission and international investigations. But their buses were attacked by police, who handed the students over to the Guerreros Unidos drug cartel.

The anniversary offered a rude reminder of the power and impunity of drug cartels, along with the collusion of politicians and police with criminal groups. It also showed the lack of political will to resolve one of the country’s most notorious crimes. For the parents of the missing students, there’s only one question.

« What happened to our children? » Bautista said. « That’s what we want to know. »

The initial news of the attack brought Mexicans from all socioeconomic classes into the streets in protest, shouting, « It was the state » and « They were taken alive, we want them back alive. »

They also protested the initial government investigation, which posited the students were kidnapped and taken to a garbage dump, where their bodies were burned in an inferno. It’s a version of events, then-Attorney General Jesús Murillo Karam called, « The historic truth. »

The investigation under President Enrique Peña Nieto, who left office in 2018, was largely based on torturing suspects, according to outside investigators. The military was also uncooperative.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, however, pledged to revive the case. He personally met with the parents of the 43 students during his successful 2018 campaign, where, Bautista recalled, « he promised to clarify the case (and) we had faith and hope in him that we would get to the truth. »

López Obrador formed a truth commission shortly after taking office in December 2018. He also appointed a special prosecutor and international investigators were also invited to return.

« There was clear political will, » said Santiago Aguirre, director of the Jesuit-sponsored Miguel Agustín Pro Juárez Human Rights Center in Mexico City. « There were advances. »

The truth commission released a report in 2022, calling the attacks « a state crime. » It also discovered the students had been monitored by the police and military from the moment they left the Ayotzinapa school — some 75 miles south of Iguala — and during the attack, but failed to intervene. The commission didn’t know the students’ whereabouts, but considered it unlikely they were still alive.

But the case subsequently stalled, with the special prosecutor suddenly resigning. Lawyers for the families alleged the investigation collided with Mexico’s military, which has become one of the president’s key allies throughout his administration.

The independent prosecutor for Ayotzinapa « found evidence of the level of Mexican authorities corruption and in particular the links between parts of the army and narcotics traffickers, » Aguirre told OSV News. « We at the Centro Pro believe that given the choice of supporting the victims or sticking with the military, the president and the government chose the latter and that explains why the case is not resolved. »

International investigators, meanwhile, allege that the military disobeyed presidential orders to open its archives. They left the country in 2023, saying, « It’s impossible to continue. »

López Obrador insisted, « There’s no impunity, » while saying that the case advanced thanks to the armed forces.

The president later took aim at lawyers for the students’ families, including Centro Pro, a human rights organization. He verbally attacked Centro Pro on multiple occasions in his morning press conference, alleging it was « not what it was before » — referencing Centro Pro’s long history of accompanying victims of violence and confronting state actors such as the military.

He also insisted the Ayotzinapa families « are being manipulated by conservative groups from the right, supported by foreign governments that want to do us damage, politically speaking. » He made the comments in March 2024, resorting to his usual word for supposed opponents — « conservative. »

« This is undoubtedly due to the fact that we have not remained silent in our remarks about the persistence of impunity, violence and cover-up by the army, » Centro Pro said in a December 2023 response to López Obrador. « Our work, together with other respected civil society organizations, has been to defend the interests and rights of families, putting the victims at the center. »

Parents of the missing students backed their representatives after the president’s attacks, including Centro Pro.

« Thanks to them, the government cannot deceive us, can’t deliver a body that isn’t one of our children, » Bautista said.

López Obrador leaves office Sept. 30 with an approval rating topping 70%, according to some polls. His popularity and repeated attacks on the parents’ representatives has diminished some of the support he had received until 2022, according to observers.

The president has said that he hopes his successor, Claudia Sheinbaum, would continue the investigation.

« I made a commitment to them to look for them until we found the young people, we worked on that all the time, we did not progress as we would have liked but it is not a closed case, » he said in a Sept. 25 letter to the families.

The families have repeatedly expressed disappointment with López Obrador, saying in a July letter, « You have lied to us, You have deceived and betrayed us. »

Pope Francis took the unusual decision Thursday to expel 10 people – a bishop, priests and laypeople – from a troubled Catholic movement in Peru after a Vatican investigation uncovered “sadistic” abuses of power, authority and spirituality.

The move against the leadership of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, or Sodalitium of Christian Life, followed Francis’ decision last month to expel the group’s founder, Luis Figari, after he was found to have sodomized his recruits.

The decision was announced by the Peruvian Bishops Conference, which posted a statement from the Vatican embassy on its website.

The statement was astonishing because it listed the abuses uncovered by the Vatican investigation and the people responsible: It reported physical abuses “including with sadism and violence,” sect-like abuses of conscience, spiritual abuse, abuses of authority, economic abuses in administering church money and the “abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism.”

The later was presumably aimed at a Sodalitium-linked journalist who has attacked critics of the movement on social media.

Marcellus « Khaliifah » Williams, an imam at Missouri’s Potosi Correctional Center, is scheduled to be executed on Tuesday (Sept. 24), even as his lawyers and advocates continue to argue his trial was plagued with racial bias and procedural errors.

The Missouri Supreme Court met Monday to discuss the arguments in Williams’ case, a day before his scheduled execution.

Both the Innocence Project and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have been urging the public to contact Governor Parson’s office in Missouri to stay the execution. 

« He’s the lead Muslim religious leader for Muslims in his prison. And he’s by all reports, you know, a respectful and respectable man who has made the most of his horrible situation and does not, should not be dying for a crime he did not commit, » said Edward Mitchell, national deputy director of CAIR.

An interfaith letter, signed by 69 Muslim, Christian and Jewish faith leaders, urged Governor Parson to grant Williams clemency.

« As an imam, Marcellus serves not only his flock, a group of men, many of whom have been abandoned by society and in desperate need of guidance and strength, but the institution as well — by providing a vital network of support for the prisoners, » reads the letter.

Williams, 55, converted to Islam during the 24 years he has spent on Missouri’s death row, after being convicted of the murder of Felicia Gayle, a former reporter found stabbed in her home in 1998. He has maintained his innocence through several failed appeals and in the face of an earlier, stayed execution date.

In 2017, then-Governor Eric Greitens blocked Williams’ execution date when evidence of an unknown individual’s DNA was found on the murder weapon and there was no trace of Williams’ DNA. Greitens appointed a board of inquiry to review evidence for the case. In June 2023, current Governor Michael Lynn Parson dissolved the board without allowing them to conclude, and Attorney General Andrew Bailey appointed a new execution date.

Earlier this year, Democratic St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Wesley Bell filed a motion to overturn Williams’ conviction based on new DNA evidence that he argued at the time would exonerate Williams. However, the DNA testing was found to be spoiled due to mishandling of the weapon by the prosecution.

Unable to use the DNA evidence, advocates for Williams, including the Midwest Innocence Project, negotiated a plea deal with the prosecutor, in which Williams would not admit guilt but would accept a sentence of life without parole. Judge Bruce Hilton agreed to the deal, as did the victim’s family, but Bailey fought the agreement, and the Missouri Supreme Court overturned it. 

In a final attempt to stay the execution, Williams’ legal team argued Monday that the jury selection process was racially biased, pointing to the 11 white people selected for the jury and the exclusion of at least one potential juror based on race.

« At the evidentiary hearing on August 28, the prosecutor testified that his removal of at least one Black prospective juror at Mr. Williams’ trial was based ‘in part’ on the fact that he was Black, » according to the statement made by the Innocence Project.

Tricia Rojo Bushnell, an attorney representing Williams, corroborated that report, telling RNS on Monday that the prosecutor had, during testimony, « confessed that at least one juror he struck, in part because of his race, because he was also a young Black man that looked like the defendant. »

She also pointed to the use of incentivized testimonies in Williams’ original trial, noting both witnesses who incriminated Williams were convicted of felonies and seeking a reward. Due to the significance of the prosecutor conceding error and the victim’s family supporting a sentence of life without parole, Bushnell believes Williams should not be executed. 

« The question is what are we pursuing? What is the Attorney General pursuing? Because the community has made clear through their duly elected prosecutor, because the family has made clear, this is not what everyone wants. Executing Marcel Williams is not justice, » said Bushnell.

Williams would be the third person executed in Missouri this year and the 15th nationwide.

More than 107,000 people have contacted Governor Parson through calls, emails and tweets, and more than 600,000 people have signed the Innocence Project’s petition to stop Williams’ execution, according to the Innocence Project’s press office.

« We’ve had over 30,000 people sign our petition and contact the governor of Missouri since Friday, and that’s remarkable. We have rarely seen petition responses that large in such a short amount of time. So, this is clearly getting the attention of the American public, especially the American Muslim community, » said Mitchell.