Fiction: The Catholic church is always against the death penalty.Fact: Utter nonsense. The Catholic Church's support for the death penalty, under certain circumstances, can be found right in the pages of the Catechism of the Catholic church.
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 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."
Obviously, because there is obviously a great deal of subjectivity to the terms in red, the death penalty is a matter of great controversy. As such many are passionatly against it, while others (such as I) see it as the only practical method of protecting society from the worst kind of filth such as murderers and child molesters. This is true, in my opinion, as a punishment but certainly as a deterent against these kinds of horrific crimes. In this case, Catholic teaching allows for both views. |