Denver Catholic

BY ROXANNE KING February is Catholic Press Month, a time to highlight the vital work of Catholic media. Below is the obituary of respect- ed newspaperman Frank Mor- riss, who worked for the Cath- olic press for nearly six decades. Frank Morriss had a doctor- ate degree in law, but chose instead to pursue a career as a Catholic journalist through which he promoted and de- fended the faith. He worked for the Catholic press—including the Denver Catholic Register, the National Catholic Regis- ter and The Wanderer—for 58 years. Morriss served the Church with distinction as an edi- tor, journalist, author and founder of a private parochial school. He died at his Wheat Ridge home on Jan. 25. He was two months shy of his 91st birthday. Born March 28, 1923, in Pas- adena, Calif., to B.G. Morriss and Regina Spann Morriss, he spent most of his life in Den- ver after moving here with his family from El Paso, Texas, in 1937. Morriss attended Cathedral High School then went on to earn a bachelor's degree in philosophy and literature from Regis College (now University), where he graduated magna cum laude. He then joined the U.S. Army Reserve Corps and served as a staff sergeant in ac- tive duty during World War II from 1943-1945. He fought in the South Pacific and in Japan and was awarded numerous medals and a Bronze Star. After his military service, he earned a doctorate in law from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. He married Mary Rita Moyni- han on Feb. 11, 1950. They had three daughters and a son. His career with the Catho- lic press was recognized with an honorary doctorate in journalism from the Register School of Journalism, which was established by the leg- endary Msgr. Matthew Smith, longtime editor of the Denver Catholic Register and found- er both of its national edition, the National Catholic Register, and of the Register System of Newspapers. It was perhaps the degree he most prized. "He was very proud of that," said Patricia Morriss Bateman, 62, of Wichita, Kan., Morriss' eldest daughter. His journalism career start- ed in 1949 when he joined the editorial staff of the Denver Catholic Register, which was still led by Msgr. Smith. At the time, the DCR and the Nation- al Catholic Register were the nucleus of the Register System of Newspapers, which reached peak circulation in the 1950s when the national edition and some 35 client editions were sent from Denver to more than 850,000 homes weekly. Morriss served as an editor with the DCR and NCR until 1961. From 1961-1963, he served as associate editor of the Ver- mont Catholic Tribune in Bur- lington, Vt. He was also the founding editor of Twin Circle, a national Catholic newspaper established in the late 1960s. Morriss was perhaps best known for his 40-year stint as contributing editor, from 1967-2007, of the national CATHOLIC LIFE I 3 DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER I FEBRUARY 5, 2014 Catholic press loses one of its own DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER FILE PHOTO BY JAMES BACA FRANK MORRISS DENVER CATHOLIC REGISTER FILE PHOTO DENVER CATHOLIC Register editor Msgr. Matthew Smith, above in 1954, founded the National Catholic Register and the Register System of Newspapers. BY NISSA LAPOINT Heightened debate on the death penalty found a plat- form at a university campus last week when two Christian professors argued over its tra- dition, morality and the ulti- mate meaning of justice. University of Colorado's pro- fessor E. Christian Kopff ar- gued the United States should support the death penalty while Msgr. Stuart Swetland of Mount St. Mary's University in Maryland argued for abolition. The two professors rallied before students and residents on the Boulder campus Jan. 31 for the annual Great Debate, hosted by the Aquinas Institute for Catholic Thought. Kopff, who's written a book about America's need for clas- sical tradition, argued for the death penalty based on the ex- tensive history of cultures and Christian thinkers who sup- ported it. "The widespread acceptance of capital punishment ... in so many different cultures and nations is a solid argument in its favor," he said. In Western tradition, he mentioned ancient Jews, Greeks and Romans who acknowledged the right to cap- ital punishment. The Church's Council of Trent and leading Christians like Pope Pius XII, St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas all wrote in favor of it, even using logical arguments not based on tradition, he said. Ignoring these traditions, Kopff said, would be foolish. "There are more reasons for widespread traditions, cultur- al and universal, that contain richer stores of information than any one person or nation or age can grasp," he told the crowd. "No one can foresee the unintended consequences of eliminating them." Msgr. Swetland agreed with Kopff's recitation of historical and Christian support for cap- ital punishment but said there are many reasons against it. He listed the nations that like the United States employ the death penalty—including China, Iran, Yemen and North Korea—which puts the nation "in bad company," he said. Furthermore, statistically it does not deter crime nor is it applied fairly or justly, he ar- gued, citing that 42 percent of those on death row are African American even though the eth- nic group comprises 13 per- cent of the nation's population. Msgr. Swetland also argued the death penalty has taken innocent lives and is more ex- pensive than alternatives. Yet, even if these reasons were ignored or reformed, he said, "It's morally wrong to in- tend the death of someone." The death penalty is not akin to a soldier or police officer's intent to stop a violent act and protect the innocent from harm. "The difference in the intent of the executions is that at the end of the procedure, there is a cadaver," he said. "(A death) should only be accepted as a side consequence. It never ought to be intended." Kopff replied that the under- lying issue to the question is justice. He quoted the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which states killing is morally justi- fiable if done in self-defense. But this reasoning applies to private citizens, not to the state, whose function it is to defend the common good, he argued. "To say the state can only use it in self-defense like an individual can use it in self-de- fense is to do in one of the greatest contributions Christi- anity ever made to the secular world, which is the idea of two kingdoms, the separation of Church and state," Kopff said. Msgr. Swetland acknowl- edged a society's need for jus- tice, understood as retribution. "Ultimately, I don't think it is about justice," he said. "It's about mercy." He said that justice is rather rightly understood as fidelity to relationships. People live in relationship with everyone, who is considered a brother or sister in Christ, he said. The death penalty should be abolished because "mercy is the justice of the kingdom," Msgr. Swetland concluded, adding, "and authentic jus- tice is fidelity to relationships, meaning we never give up even on the most hardened of sinners." Nissa LaPoint: 303-715-3138; nissa.lapoint@archden.org; www. twitter.com/DCRegisterNissa Professors debate death penalty: retribution or mercy? PHOTO BY NISSA LAPOINT UNIVERSITY of Colorado's E. Christian Kopff, right, and Msgr. Stu- art Swetland of Mount St. Mary's University debate over the death penalty in the United States Jan. 31. See Morriss, Page 12

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