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Copyright © 2003
Orbis Books
July 2002
Anti-Death Penalty Book Receives
Pax Christi USA Book Award
Pax Christi USA The National Catholic Peace Movement
www.paxchristiusa.org
Antoinette Bosco
On August 12, 1993, Antoinette Bosco’s 40-year-old son and his wife were brutally murdered. In the wake of their murders, Bosco understood a victim’s "eye for an eye" response. "We feel a need to teach a lesson, to punish and prove our point or our power, to ‘even the score.’" Ultimately however, she found that "the pain of losing loved ones to murder is not lessened by the killing of another, not even when it is cloaked as ‘justice’ and state-sanctioned."
Her story is recounted in her book, Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty (Orbis Books, April 2001), this year’s recipient of the Pax Christi USA Book Award.

"Abolition of the death penalty is a major issue for Pax Christi USA, and we have groups and individuals across the nation working to get their states to issue a moratorium or abolish it altogether," said Dave Robinson, national coordinator of Pax Christi USA, the national Catholic peace movement. "Choosing Mercy is an excellent choice for this year’s award. No one can speak with more authority for the abolition of the death penalty than someone who has lost a loved one to murder."
Orbis publisher Michael Leach observed, "We are honored just to know Toni Bosco. She is courageous, honest, compassionate, and forgiving. She embodies what Orbis aspires to."

Bosco’s book touches on numerous issues debated by capital punishment advocates and foes, including flaws in the criminal justice system, cases of innocent persons being sentenced to death, and the effect of race and class in death penalty cases. But she covers these issues not as an outside observer, but from the position of one for whom the death penalty is a personal issue. She presents the case for abolishing the death penalty by sharing her own story, the story of one who must make the journey from fury to forgiveness. What she finds is that "the death penalty, which focuses on the crime, actually prevents families from grieving. . .it is not a solution to violence, but an escalation of violence."
Bosco’s self-examination after brutality struck forced her to learn what Christianity requires and provides. "Forgiveness doesn’t mean to give in – it means to let go, and letting go is a pre-condition to becoming free," she said. "Jesus showed us the way: in a word, forgiveness."

Bosco is an award-winning syndicated columnist and a single mother who raised seven children. Her articles have appeared in The New York Times, Parade, and Ladies Home Journal. She is the author of nine other books, including Finding Peace Through Pain (originally titled The Pummeled Heart). She is a member of Murder Victims Families for Reconciliation. Choosing Mercy is also the winner of the prestigious Christopher Award.

The Pax Christi USA Book Award will be presented to Antoinette Bosco at the Pax Christi USA National Assembly, In Times of Terrorism: Casting Out Fear, Building on Hope, Living Nonviolence, in Detroit, MI, July 26-28.
Previous Orbis authors who have received Pax Christi USA Book Awards include:
Leo Lefebure, Revelation, the Religions and Violence (2001); Eileen Egan, Peace Be With You (2000); and Henri Nouwen, The Road to Peace (1999).
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