I can’t imagine taking a position in opposition to the Church on anything in the belief that I know better than them.
Exactly.
Which is why we cannot take the position that the death penalty is inherently morally evil across circumstances.
This would place us in opposition to the Church Herself, who authoritatively taught the contrary throughout Her history.
The living magisterium is tasked with preserving Tradition. They have authority only within their designated parameters.
There can be authentic development in understanding – but never a
change of a type so fundamental that it objectively contradicts what came before.
The Church’s previous authoritative position positively
required Catholics to believe that the death penalty may be legitimately applied under some circumstances. No Church official has the authority to now contradict that.
If they do, it disproves the Church.
So whatever’s happened, we must interpret it as not actually contradicting what came before. Or we must accept the Church as disproven.
No current pope can have valid authority if any previous pope didn’t. We cannot jettison the Church-yesterday for some new Church-today. There is only one Church. Not just across the globe but across the years. She can grow from a seed into a tree – but not into a camel.