Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks about a toll highway relief program during a press conference held at the Greater Miami Expressway Agency on April 1, 2024, in Miami. / Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images
CNA Newsroom, Mar 15, 2025 / 10:00 am (CNA).
The Catholic bishops of Florida are urging Gov. Ron DeSantis to commute the death sentence of Edward James, who is scheduled to be executed by the state next week for a 1993 double homicide.
James pleaded guilty in 1995 to the killings of Betty Dick and her eight-year-old granddaughter Toni Neuner in Casselberry, Florida. He had strangled and raped Toni prior to her death before stabbing Betty Dick. He was ultimately apprehended in California.
In a Friday press release, the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops (FCCB) said it had “implored Gov. Ron DeSantis to stay the execution of Edward James and commute his sentence to life without parole.”
FCCB Executive Director Michael Sheedy in a letter to DeSantis noted that the murders were “heinous” and “tragic.”
“It is indeed a duty of the state to protect the lives and safety of its citizens and to impose appropriate punishment for crimes, and we recognize your responsibility in ensuring this duty is carried out,” Sheedy said.
But, he wrote, the “intrinsic dignity and unalienable rights of every human being are not annihilated by even gravely evil acts.”
“It is better for the people of Florida to punish severely without themselves acting to kill a human being,” Sheedy wrote, arguing that a life sentence without the possibility of parole “is still a severe punishment which also serves to protect society from further danger.”
The Church “teaches that all human life is sacred,” the FCCB said on Friday, writing: “Even people who have committed terrible acts and caused great harm possess a human dignity instilled by God, our Creator.”
The modern penal system has rendered executions “unnecessary,” the bishops said.
James is scheduled to be executed on Thursday. The Florida Supreme Court this week refused to block his execution, as did a federal appeals court.
The bishops’ conference said next week that prior to James’s execution Floridians “will gather across the state to pray for him and his victims, for DeSantis as he considers the request to stay the execution, and for an end to the death penalty and the cycle of violence in society.”
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Martin Navarro, a layman and founder of the group the Oblates of St. Augustine, is refusing to obey his bishop’s demands that he no longer fundraise, identify himself as “brother,” dress in a habit, and construct a chapel in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph. / Screenshot from YouTube video
Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 19, 2022 / 18:40 pm (CNA).
A social media-savvy layman, who uses the title “Brother” and wears a habit, will not obey his bishop’s orders to cease presenting himself as a religious brother or member of a religious community.
Nor will Martin Navarro — whose “Br. Martin” Twitter account has more than 11,000 followers — acquiesce to Bishop James Johnston’s demands to stop fundraising in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph and cease building an unauthorized chapel.
“We’re following the rules, we’re following the guidelines, as well as being honest as who we are and what our intentions are,” Navarro said in a YouTube video posted May 17.
As to his practice of wearing a habit, he said, “it’s a free country, so to speak; you can wear whatever you want.”
Navarro, 31, has asked Johnston to formally recognize a Traditional Latin Mass religious group Navarro started called the Oblates of St. Augustine.
Johnston denied the request. He also ordered the group to cease operating in the diocese.
The bishop issued the demands in a letter dated May 6 addressed to Navarro. Navarro made the letter public in the same YouTube video from May 17.
“I have not given nor will give approval or permission to explore, found, or establish the community about which you have previously inquired,” Johnston stated in the letter.
“I further direct that you do not use the religious title of ‘Brother Martin’ at any time nor dress in a religious habit, since in justice and truth, your canonical status is not one of membership within a religious community, such continued usage is both disingenuous and dishonest,” he added.
Bishop James Johnston of Kansas City-St. Joseph. CNA
Johnston reiterated his demands “in order to emphasize the seriousness of my warning and prohibitions” at the end of the letter.
“I reiterate what I have made eminently clear above: do not call yourself ‘Brother,’ do not continue to present yourself within the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph in any manner or means, including by wearing a religious habit, as a Brother or as a member of a religious community, do not ask for any funds or alms within the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph whether in person or on the Internet or other social media formats, and do not utilize an unapproved chapel within the Diocese of Kansas City St. Joseph,” he stated.
“Your request of me regarding your proposed formation of Oblates of Saint Augustine is, therefore, denied.”
Church law at issue
Navarro told CNA on May 18 that he will not comply with Johnston’s orders.
The Oblates of St. Augustine community he leads is based in Weston, Missouri, a small town about a 40-minute drive north of Kansas City. It’s unclear how many men are in the group. Speaking to CNA, Navarro would only say that since founding the Oblates in 2020, “I’ve never been alone.”
The Oblates’ website describes the group as a “community of Traditional Roman Catholic men, faithful to the Traditional Roman Rite, the Holy Rule of St. Augustine, and the traditional formulations of the Catholic religion.” The group says it is devoted to the Traditional Latin Mass and breviary.
Navarro said the group is currently living on property leased to them by Mike Parrott, the host of a YouTube channel called Restoring the Faith Media. The group’s chapel in a converted garage already is under construction on the property, and nearing completion. Navarro told CNA the group has raised more than $161,000 for the monastery project. A separate funding drive accepts donations for the group members’ living expenses.
Navarro’s “Br. Martin” Twitter account often tweets comments concerning an ongoing dispute between Parrot and the Church Militant media outlet which began over Parrot’s fundraising efforts on behalf of Father James Jackson, a priest of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter who is facing federal child pornography charges in Rhode Island.
In his letter, Johnston cited several canons, as well as Pope Francis’ 2020 motu proprio Authenticum charismatis, to support his authority over the group’s activities in his diocese.
Johnston warned that “failure to observe these provisions … could result in further disciplinary actions. Accordingly, this letter itself stands as due canonical warning of the same.”
Navarro, for his part, says Johnston is misinterpreting church law, and using it “to intimidate us from praying.”
Asked to respond to Navarro’s intention to defy Johnston, Ashlie Hand, communications director for the Kansas City-St. Joseph Diocese, issued a statement to CNA Thursday night.
“Bishop Johnston has communicated appropriate guidance and next steps with Mr. Navarro regarding his request to establish the Oblates of St. Augustine in the Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph,” Hand said. “Bishop Johnston intends any further communication to be private.”
Nashville, Tenn., Jan 3, 2019 / 10:00 am (CNA).- An Episcopalian priest set out to write a book on finding and understanding the Gospel’s truth. Now, after he and his family have converted to Catholicism, he says they have found it.
Washington D.C., Mar 30, 2021 / 02:00 pm (CNA).- The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider whether Kentucky’s pro-life attorney general can defend the commonwealth’s law banning dismemberment abortions. The court announced it was granting one… […]
4 Comments
Hey, you Florida bishops. I get that all life is precious.
But I would think you might want to say something every once in a while about the three thousand or so babies who are butchered and scalded and puréed every day of every week of every month of every year in this country.
As opposed to say, you know, a creep who raped an innocent little girl and then murdered both her and her mother.
Now, once all the babies are safe and sound, then, yes, say something about the vilely heinous murderers.
But, until then, I think you ought to speak up about this most horrific holocaust humanity has ever witnessed, abortion.
Unfortunately, usually all we get is crickets from most of you in the Catholic hierarchy.
Please go back and read your quotes about the value and dignity of all life, and then think about those thousands of little babies being killed by their mothers.
And then ask the Holy Spirit what He wants you to say.
One benefit of the death penalty is the stark choice of final conversation and this has been the advocacy of classical Catholic mor theology. I hope this soul, even at this late stage, sees that!!
“James pleaded guilty in 1995 to the killings of Betty Dick and her eight-year-old granddaughter Toni Neuner in Casselberry, Florida. He had strangled and raped Toni prior to her death before stabbing Betty Dick. He was ultimately apprehended in California.”
And why, bishops, would you assume here that the death penalty is not the necessary and appropriate consequence of this heinous crime? Why should criminals who murder children receive mercy?
Hey, you Florida bishops. I get that all life is precious.
But I would think you might want to say something every once in a while about the three thousand or so babies who are butchered and scalded and puréed every day of every week of every month of every year in this country.
As opposed to say, you know, a creep who raped an innocent little girl and then murdered both her and her mother.
Now, once all the babies are safe and sound, then, yes, say something about the vilely heinous murderers.
But, until then, I think you ought to speak up about this most horrific holocaust humanity has ever witnessed, abortion.
Unfortunately, usually all we get is crickets from most of you in the Catholic hierarchy.
Please go back and read your quotes about the value and dignity of all life, and then think about those thousands of little babies being killed by their mothers.
And then ask the Holy Spirit what He wants you to say.
One benefit of the death penalty is the stark choice of final conversation and this has been the advocacy of classical Catholic mor theology. I hope this soul, even at this late stage, sees that!!
“James pleaded guilty in 1995 to the killings of Betty Dick and her eight-year-old granddaughter Toni Neuner in Casselberry, Florida. He had strangled and raped Toni prior to her death before stabbing Betty Dick. He was ultimately apprehended in California.”
And why, bishops, would you assume here that the death penalty is not the necessary and appropriate consequence of this heinous crime? Why should criminals who murder children receive mercy?
I propose that instead of their telescopic sympathy, a Bishop gets to be a “celly” of this individual for a month or so.