So whats all the moaning about? Did the Pope ever say that the death penalty is intrinsically evil?
No, but “inadmissible” is still a very strong term. Many who have their doubts about the change but are reluctant to take a critical view of the Pope are clinging to this distinction between “inadmissibility” and “intrinsically evil”. Personally I find that they are grasping at straws, for “inadmissible” is too strong a term to take the Pope’s view as being a “prudential guideline” only. And so is “contrary to the Gospel”, another phrase that Pope Francis has used.
The fact is, the new teaching is worded in a very strong way that leaves Catholics who disagree with this change in quite a bind. More generally, he leaves all Catholics that would prefer less change, not more, in quite a bind, by speaking in a somewhat condescending way about our “old views”:
[…] this problem cannot be merely reduced to a mere memory of historical teaching without bringing to the fore […] the changed awareness consciousness of the Christian people, that rejects an attitude which consents to a punishment that heavily harms human dignity.”
[…] in past centuries, when faced with a poverty of instruments of defense and social maturity had not yet reached a positive development, recourse to the death penalty appeared as the logical consequence of the application of justice which had to be adhered to.
As you can see the Pope takes the view that the Christian consciousness and “social maturity” of our forefathers were somewhat inadequate up until recently. I find this a view of 2,000 years of tradition that is rather hard to swallow.
And there is more:
[…] in the Papal State there was recourse to the extreme and inhuman remedy, ignoring the primacy of mercy over justice.”
To the Pope “the primacy of mercy over justice” seems to be an obvious given. But since when is this the case? There is nothing obvious about it. In truth, God’s mercy often takes the form of Justice, but our current Pope speaks as if mercy is the suspension or remission of justice – as if justice is desired by revenge-mongers only; as if those “longing for justice” (Mark 5:6) are in error.
And it goes on:
[…] We assume responsibility for the past, and we recognize that those means were dictated more by a legalistic than a Christian mentality [which] led to an overestimation of the value of the law, preventing a going in depth into the understanding of the Gospel.”
Again, two millennia of tradition are summarily dismissed as a somewhat embarassing episode that we shall now “take responsibility for”. And the Church Fathers, Doctors, and Saints were apparently unable to “go in depth into an understanding of the Gospel.”
Enough said. I’m not a Pope-basher by nature. I’m just facing facts based on what Pope Francis has said and is saying. If you’re a Catholic of a traditional bent, you’re in serious jam under this papacy. If you like your Catholicism light, modern, and moving with the times, it should be easy sailing for you the coming years.
