On the death penalty

Pope Francis today announced a change in the wording of the Catechism of the Catholic Church when it comes to the death penalty.

The old text read (with a highlight added):

“2267. 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, 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 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 nonexistent.‘”

 

The new wording reads:

 

“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”,[1] and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide”.

Pope St. John Paul II back in the 1990s gave us the first reading as he moved the Church toward disapproval of the death penalty, though he left a window open. Alas, too many used that window to justify general support for the death penalty. Pope Francis has completed what John Paul started, closing that window. It is a development of doctrine, not a change.

I applaud this change. I have opposed the death penalty for decades. I even opposed it for those responsible for the murder of my brother in 1983.

My opposition fits in with my pro-life stance - opposed to abortion, euthanasia, unjust war, the death penalty, unjust economic and social policies, and so on. I believe in respecting the dignity of every human being, so this development is easy for me to accept. John Paul's window allowed for situations where the convicted individual was still a threat to society, but given our prison system such individuals can be contained. (Yes, they can still be a threat to other inmates and prison personnel, but such instances are the exception, not the rule.) Those added years of incarceration give the individual more of a chance to repent.

There are those who oppose this development. Some of them have sincere intellectual problems with it. I get that. I respect that.

But for some it seems more a matter of being part of their conservative - even Republican - view of the world. In the past I have noted some Catholic Democrats, when it comes to an issue like abortion, are more Democrats than Catholic. I think the same holds here when it comes to Catholic Republicans: When it comes to death penalty they seem more Republican than Catholic.

I also fear that some will use this development as yet another cudgel with which to hit Pope Francis.

I am not a fan of such actions. Yes, priest (and bishops) should be subject to penalties when they have sinned and violated the law, but in talking about them we need to show respect.

As St. Francis noted:

Blessed is the servant of God who exhibits confidence in clerics who live uprightly according to the form of the holy Roman Church. And woe to those who despise them: for even though they [the clerics] may be sinners, nevertheless no one ought to judge them, because the Lord Himself reserves to Himself alone the right of judging them. For as the administration with which they are charged, to wit, of the most holy Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, which they receive and which they alone administer to others—is greater than all others, even so the sin of those who offend against them is greater than any against all the other men in this world.

Pax et bonum