When I said “soft” I meant that (in my experience) the people on CAF seem to have a “soft” opposition to the death penalty (I think most people on here oppose the death penalty, but the issue doesn’t occupy the forefront of their political agenda).
Also, the death penalty is NOT an intrinsic evil. The pope has never called for it to be abolished and has always given the state the final decision administering capital punishment. That’s not to say that catholics should support it, just that the issue is NOT intrinsically evil and should occupy a lower priority on people’s political agenda’s.
The reality is that there are two political parties in the United States. One supports the death penalty and a few issues on social justice that the church opposes, but generally condemns gay marriage, abortion, euthanasia, stem-cell research, etc… The other party opposes the death penalty and arguably has the moral high ground in areas of social justice but condones a whole swath of intrinsically EVIL policies. It is very clear which political party Catholics have the moral obligation to vote for.
Just to be clear, I think it’s fine to speak out against the death penalty, but given the current political climate we have a duty to also inform catholics that the death penalty should occupy much lower priority on their voting agenda then issues of intrinsic evil. To fail to do this could lead people to vote for a pro-death political party and, thus, give scandal to mortal sin.
