My very first substantive post here at Pro Ecclesia * Pro Familia * Pro Civitate was about the death penalty. Since that post nearly 2 years ago, I have re-examined my conscience and my position on the death penalty. I have come to the point where I now, for prudential reasons*, oppose the death penalty.
Nevertheless, I continue to struggle with the Church's current teaching / "development of doctrine" regarding capital punishment, and for that reason have recently chosen to forego discussing that issue on this blog. Therefore, you will not be hearing from me on the sentence carried out against Saddam Hussein this past weekend, except as follows:
(1) I'd like to direct your attention to Christopher Blosser's excellent round-up on the death of Saddam Hussein; and
(2) To the extent capital punishment is still a valid option under Church doctrine - and it appears that the Vatican is, with its recent statements, intimating that it is not - but if it is, surely it is meant for the likes of Saddam Hussein.
* My newfound opposition to the death penalty is based on the need to create a culture where all life is honored and protected until natural death. And it is so much easier to argue for a culture of life when your opposition isn't trying to derail your arguments by attempting to point out your alleged "hypocricy" regarding capital punishment.
I am sorry to see you depart from the Traditional Magisterium of the Church:
ReplyDelete2267 Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty (emphasis added), if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent."
From the Catechism of the Catholic Church, promulgated by His Holiness, John Paul II.
When did I depart from the Traditional Magisterium of the Church?
ReplyDeleteI said I've been reexamining my own views of the death penalty since becoming Catholic, but at no point in my post did I even take any position on what the Church teaches.
In fact, I said that I have been struggling with the Church's current "development of doctrine", and for that reason would not address the issue.