The Pope, following his predecessors, condemns the use of the death penalty on the solidly orthodox grounds that we should not kill people if we don’t have to.
That change is now reflected in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
2267. Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.
Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.
Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.
That means it is not “the Pope’s personal opinion”, but the teaching of the Church. Period. Full stop.
It also means that rejection of the Church’s teaching on this point is not “prudential judgment”, but disobedient sin. Because Prudential Judgment is about how best, not whether, to obey the Church’s teaching.
The reason the Church teaches this is that we don’t have to kill anyone on death row, so we shouldn’t. And given that 4% of ours–the largest prison population on planet Earth here in the Land of the Free–are innocent, we especially shouldn’t kill people since it will mean offering four innocent human sacrifices to Moloch in order to kill 96 people who do not need to be killed.
Meanwhile MAGA conservative antichrist worshippers lie that the Pope condemns God so they can slake their thirst for human blood–all while calling themselves “pro-life”.
Here’s reality: Genesis 9:6 is a concession to human weakness, every bit as much as the Mosaic concession to divorce. But “from the beginning it was not so”. It is not an ideal and it says everything that the “pro-life” MAGA cult of death treats the death penalty as a cherished keepsake and longs to kill as many as possible if they possibly can. It’s the same mentality they displayed when they argued “You get to kill in war, so how much more should you get to torture?”
You don’t get to kill in war. Killing is not a prize or a reward in war. You sometimes have to kill in war, but the moment your enemy becomes your prisoner they have all the human rights God gave them and if you do shoot them anyway, it’s called “murder”. For exactly the same reason, if you torture them, it’s a war crime, not a treat granted the victor.
The “prolife” MAGA cult is the most spiritually and physically deadly heresy in the history of the US Church.
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4 Responses
There have been quite a few cases of innocent men ending up on death row. Some have been exonerated, some have been executed. The idea of executing an innocent man is abhorrent in the extreme. Yet the attitude of some politicians about this is blasé. Incredible.
When Illinois governor George Ryan stopped the death penalty, 50% of cases appealed turned out to be false convictions.
A literal coin toss in odds of getting it right with the ultimate penalty.
“The “prolife” MAGA cult is the most spiritually and physically deadly heresy in the history of the US Church.”
Yes, it is. And there is collateral spiritual damage beyond the members of the cult. It causes others to question the truth of the faith when so many of the “faithful” bear false witness.
Not only do MAGA Christians embrace the death penalty, they don’t even see the need to have a conviction, a trial or even a real accusation of criminal wrongdoing.
Simple disloyalty to dear leader is sufficient to deserve death in their eyes.