Capital Punishment...

[chrisb]

Grace and Peace be with you all,

What is the position of the Roman Catholic Church on Capital Punishment?

Peace and God Bless!

 

[Della]

I assume you mean the death penalty? Here it is:

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.”

 

[chrisb]

Della:

I assume you mean the death penalty? Here it is:

Grace and Peace Della,

God Bless you! I completely overlooked this.

Peace and again God Bless. Amen.

 

[wjp984]

The only way I have ever thought of the death penalty is as a means for revenge. The victims do get to watch the execution after all. From this standpoint, I don’t see how it could possibly be justified since Jesus taught forgiveness. I have thought numerouis times, good thing they got that bastard and he got what was coming to him when I hear about someone being exectuted but that doesn’t really make it right. Perhaps others can disagree and ahver their own opinons, but I usaully can’t find any reason to justify why I think someone should be exectued other than the fact that they deserve to die. Therefore, thinking that way is wrong and recently, I have pondered on changing my position on the issue to being anti death penalty instead of pro death penalty for the above reason.

 

[BioCatholic]

wjp984:

I have thought numerouis times, good thing they got that bastard and he got what was coming to him when I hear about someone being exectuted but that doesn’t really make it right.

ever witnessed an execution? the fear in their eyes is enough. the look on their face is priceless. at least they KNOW it is coming, unlike their victim(s). The sentence is carried out with such cold indifference and almost inhuman procedure that it is very unnerving. Some people actually urinate themselves from fear. It is a very fitting punishment for a person who has committed capital or multiple murders.

Please refer to “Cruel and Unusual” punishment at the time the Constitution was written. people are very lucky that activist judges and spine-less Legislatures have removed some of the punishments that were OK back in the 1780’s. Firing squads, public hangings, execution of juveniles, all perfectly acceptable under the Constitution. That’s REAL strict constructionism.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

wjp984:

The only way I have ever thought of the death penalty is as a means for revenge. The victims do get to watch the execution after all. From this standpoint, I don’t see how it could possibly be justified since Jesus taught forgiveness. I have thought numerouis times, good thing they got that bastard and he got what was coming to him when I hear about someone being exectuted but that doesn’t really make it right. Perhaps others can disagree and ahver their own opinons, but I usaully can’t find any reason to justify why I think someone should be exectued other than the fact that they deserve to die. Therefore, thinking that way is wrong and recently, I have pondered on changing my position on the issue to being anti death penalty instead of pro death penalty for the above reason.

Relatives of the victim maybe. The victim stopped watching things a long time previous to the execution.

 

[Al_Masetti]

BioCatholic:

ever witnessed an execution? the fear in their eyes is enough. the look on their face is priceless. at least they KNOW it is coming, unlike their victim(s). The sentence is carried out with such cold indifference and almost inhuman procedure that it is very unnerving. Some people actually urinate themselves from fear. It is a very fitting punishment for a person who has committed capital or multiple murders.

Please refer to “Cruel and Unusual” punishment at the time the Constitution was written. people are very lucky that activist judges and spine-less Legislatures have removed some of the punishments that were OK back in the 1780’s. Firing squads, public hangings, execution of juveniles, all perfectly acceptable under the Constitution. That’s REAL strict constructionism.

I thought that “cruel and unusual” meant drawing & quartering; burning at the stake; bow and arrow; breaking at the wheel — the sorts of things that were common in merrie old england.

 

[Al_Masetti]

By the way, have you done a search here for all the other discussions on capital punishment? There have recently been some humdingers.

And, also search here for Avery Cardinal Dulles. He wrote some excellent stuff and the URLs are here in the CA forums.

OR, you could visit www.ratzingerfanclub.com and scroll around in there for capital punishment.

Here’s the Cardinal Dulles link:
ratzingerfanclub.com/Dulles/

 

[Philip76]

In my opinion, cruel and unusual should include the electric chair and the lethal injection, both of which are used in some American states. Both cause pain to the executed person, although the latter is designed to paralyse them so that the witnesses to the execution don’t have to see that they are in pain!

 

[Streetdoc]

**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. **

This teaching by the Church tells us that life in prison without parole is more acceptable than the death penality. As a Catholic armed with this teaching I don’t see how any one could support the death penality. You also have to consider that innocent people are sometimes wrongly imprisoned, and I don’t beleive that anyone would want an innocent person be put to death.

I also find it hard to see how one can speak of the evils of abortion while supporting the death penality, each is the ending of a human life no matter how you look at it.

 

[Joe_Kelley]

** . . .** You also have to consider that innocent people are sometimes wrongly imprisoned, and I don’t beleive that anyone would want an innocent person be put to death. . . .

In fact there are very few who would want to see an innocent person spend life in prison.

 

[manualman]

Biocath,

You presume too much. As a strict constructionist, I do indeed object to judges proclaiming such things unconstitutional. However, I wholeheartedly support foresighted legislators recognizing the inappropriateness of such things and enacting new, properly written and specific laws to ban them.

Strict constructionists do not oppose the evolution of law. We oppose having the constitutionally provided role of the legislative branch usurped by the judicial!

 

[AndyF]

BioCatholic:

ever witnessed an execution? the fear in their eyes is enough. the look on their face is priceless. at least they KNOW it is coming, unlike their victim(s). The sentence is carried out with such cold indifference and almost inhuman procedure that it is very unnerving. Some people actually urinate themselves from fear. It is a very fitting punishment for a person who has committed capital or multiple murders.

Please refer to “Cruel and Unusual” punishment at the time the Constitution was written. people are very lucky that activist judges and spine-less Legislatures have removed some of the punishments that were OK back in the 1780’s. Firing squads, public hangings, execution of juveniles, all perfectly acceptable under the Constitution. That’s REAL strict constructionism.

Anything beyond what the Church states is cruel and unusual.

Andy

 

[anarchocatholic]

The Church is coming closer and closer to outright admitting that the death penalty is absolutely wrong. Period.