Can a Catholic support death penalty?

[Ender]

I have seen an article that said that we can, citing Joe Heschmeyers’ position that the Church doesn’t prohibit us from supporting death penalty. Is he right?

This question arises because of the recent change to the catechism where Pope Francis altered it to say capital punishment is now “inadmissible.” Catholics are left to ponder exactly what that means and whether it really is a reversal of 2000 years of church teaching on the matter.

This is not an inconsequential question. Can a pope simply reverse a doctrine that was approved by virtually every Father and Doctor of the church, all of his predecessors, and set forth in every catechism? The alternative to accepting that is to believe that Francis’ comments expressed his prudential judgment on the benefits of using it in contemporary society.