On the morning of Saturday, 3rd February, an assortment of people will gather outside the front entrance of the former Pentridge Prison to remember a hanging.
Forty years ago, on that very morning, Ronald Ryan had a noose put around his neck by the prison hangman. With the authority of the Victorian State Government, its then Premier, Henry Bolte, and the Victorian Supreme Court he was killed.
Ryan was the last man hanged in Australia, and many believe he will always retain that infamous privilege.
While popular press surveys, usually conducted after some horrendous crime, often find that Australians divide equally in their support for or opposition to capital punishment, there has been no reputable or respected Australian political leaders in recent decades who has publicly supported its re-introduction.
Reasoned argument instead suggests that it is hard for a civilized society to support the taking of the life of one its citizens in order to uphold the value of human life.
Such argument in Australia, of course, will not prevent other countries continuing the practice - some, such as China and Singapore, continue to practice it with great enthusiasm.
It is just over twelve months since an Australian citizen, twenty-five year old Van Nguyen, was hanged on the gallows in Singapore. At the present time, six young Australians are awaiting death from a firing squad in Bali, as a result of the decision of the Indonesian courts.
But the Australians concerned with preventing further executions do not limit themselves to the protection of the lives of Australian citizens living abroad. Around the world, thousands of people are executed each year.
According to Amnesty International’s annual report on official judicial execution in 2004, there were 3,797 confirmed executions in 25 countries. Nine out of every ten executions took place in China. Singapore has the fourth highest rate of executions per year of any country in the world, after Kuwait, China and Iran, at a rate seven times that of the United States.
The need to spread what he called 'The Culture of Life' as opposed to 'The Culture of Death' was proclaimed by John Paul II in 1995. He adopted a position that was identical with that of the late Cardinal Bernadin, Archbishop of Chicago – namely the 'consistent ethic of life'.
The clear message of this teaching is that all attacks on life are to be resisted, whether they come from nuclear warfare, the practice of abortion, euthanasia, suicide, ethnic conflicts, unethical genetic practices, or capital punishment.
The recent execution of Saddam Hussein and his compatriots presented a challenge to those who uphold this ethical or moral position. But those who oppose capital punishment according to these moral principles are not influenced by the guilt or innocence of the party concerned.
The critical issue is the commitment to the value and dignity of all human life.
When Ronald Ryan's former defence counsels, Phil Opas and Brian Bourke, gather with other friends and colleagues outside the walls of Pentridge Prison at 10am next Saturday morning, the memory of Ryan’s execution, and the meeting of those who opposed it at the time will reflect values that uphold human dignity.
So too will the gathering of his family members and others at the midday memorial service at St Ignatius Church in Richmond on that day.
Richmond was where Ryan’s family lived at the time of his execution.
As Ryan explained, his 'return to the faith' at the time was from conviction, not convenience. It was because of a saintly Good Shepherd Sister, Margaret Kingston, and a knockabout priest, John Brosnan, who were living witnesses to these gospel values.