Capital Punishment

[Wanet]

Dear Catholic Answers – I’m an Episcopalian who listens to Catholic radio from time to time. I’ve heard many discussions about the Culture of Life discussing abortion, euthanasia and infantacide. I’ve never heard anyone mention capital punishment. I wondered if it is still the Church’s teaching that capital punishment is morally wrong, and why it’s never mentioned when discussing Life issues. I know members of Religious Orders have been involved in this issue in the past. Thank you for your help. – Wanet

 

[Brendan]

Dear Catholic Answers – I’m an Episcopalian who listens to Catholic radio from time to time. I’ve heard many discussions about the Culture of Life discussing abortion, euthanasia and infantacide. I’ve never heard anyone mention capital punishment. I wondered if it is still the Church’s teaching that capital punishment is morally wrong, and why it’s never mentioned when discussing Life issues. I know members of Religious Orders have been involved in this issue in the past. Thank you for your help. – Wanet

Unlike things like abortion, euthanasis, the Catholic Church doe not consider Capital Punishment to be intrincially immoral. It should be used rarely and when no other methods for protecting society are reasonably effective.

Here are some relavant quotes

Cathechism of the Catholic Church

“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 with 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 definitively 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.”

CCC - 2267

And here is a very good article on the Church’s teachings. The man who wrote this, Avery Cardinal Dulles, was made a Cardinal for his work as a theologian. He was one of the very few Cardinals who were not bishops

catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0461.html

 

[chaunceygardner]

There is an ongoing thread about this in the Social Justice forum, called Catholicism’s Stand on Capital Punishment. Check that out for a very lengthy debate over what the church’s position may be, may not be, or should be. It is quite enlightening.

For the current position, here are two paragraphs from the Catholic Catechism that helps answer your question (but perhaps not completely, as you will see from the posts on the thread to which I referred):

2266

The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people’s rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and the duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When it is willingly accepted by the guilty party, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people’s safety, has a medicinal purpose: as far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party.

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 with 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 definitively 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.”

You can find these online and other parts of the Catechism that cover this subject, as well as references for the quotes used in the paragraphs cited.

 

[Wanet]

Thanks to both of you – I’ll check out the discussions you suggest. – Wanet

 

[Roman_Army]

Although the Church considers Capital Punishment a sin when knowingly used unnecessarily, she does not consider it as equal to the sin of abortion, euthanasia, embryo destructive stem cell research, assisted suicide, etc. She considers it as excessive punishment much like when a parent goes in a rage and punishes their child too severely that it becomes abuse. Abortion, euthanasia, etc. is the killing of innocent human life, which is distinct from the killing of someone guilty of a heinous crime.

 

[Ron_Conte]

Capital punishment is not intrinsically evil, because it is not the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human person. The person who is killed by proper authority with the death penalty must be guilty of a crime so serious as to deserve death. Capital punishment is moral when the intention, the moral object, and the circumstances are good.

“3. Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”

Worthiness to Receive Holy Communion
General Principles
by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger

Capital punishment was applied by the command of God in the Old Testament. St. Paul in Acts says that if he were guilty of a serious crime, he would not object to being put to death. And the Church has never taught that the death penalty is intrinsically evil and therefore always immoral.

 

[Wanet]

Thanks to all for the information. I was confused because I had read about statements by John Paul II that the death penalty should be abolished, so thought that was the Church’s teaching. I appreciate your replies.

 

[Roman_Army]

Thanks to all for the information. I was confused because I had read about statements by John Paul II that the death penalty should be abolished, so thought that was the Church’s teaching. I appreciate your replies.

Yes, it is Church teaching that the death penalty be abolished if the circumstances are good enough to be able to securely and effectively imprison the criminal. However, it is not an absolute prohibition as is the case with abortion, euthanasia, etc. It is left to the prudential judgement on the part of government officials who have expertise in the field of criminal justice to know if the circumstances in prisons are good enough to do away with the death penalty. One might legitimately argue that the local prison system cannot handle it and also some highly skilled invdividuals (e.g. ex special ops soldiers turned bad, highly trained terrorists, or others skilled in infiltrating security facilities and killing) might not be effectively secured, or also leaders of organized crime ordering hits from behind bars, etc. Others might also legitimately disagree with those security concerns and support the complete abolition of the death penalty. It’s something that needs to be addressed locally.