How can we call Thomas Moore a saint?

[Genesis315]

Here’s part of a 19th century work by Bishop Wilhelm Emmanuel von Ketteler on religious liberty which addresses the concern with the execution of heretics during such times.

opuscula.blogspot.com/2008/07/religious-freedom-part-iii.html

Another good read is the 1836 debate between the Archbishop of New York John Hughes and the Presbyterian minister John Breckinridge entitled:

“A discussion of the question, Is the Roman Catholic religion, in any or in all its principles or doctrines, inimical to civil or religious liberty? And of the question, Is the Presbyterian religion, in any or in all its principles or doctrines, inimical to civil or religious liberty?”

During the debate, Breckinridge brings this issue up and uses the Albigensians as an example (citing a canon of the Third or Fourth Lateran Council that called for such a penalty). Hughes answers by addressing the grave damage the Albigensians did to the just order of that society. Here’s how he sums up his argument:
Archbishop Hughes:

Let any man apply the doctrines of the Albigenses, simply on two points, viz. the tenet that the devil was the creator of the visible world ; and that, in order to avoid co-operation with the devil in continuing his work, the faithful should take measures by which the human race should come to an end ; and then say whether those errors were merely speculative. They were, on the contrary, pregnant with destruction to society. Was it persecution, or rather, was it not self-preservation, to arrest those errors? We shall see presently, however, that these men, like the Calvinists in France at a later period, took up the sword of sedition, and wielded it against the government under which they lived. We shall see, that long before the canon of Lateran was passed, their course was marked with plunder, rapine, bloodshed. And if so, it follows that their crimes against society springing from their doctrines, constitute the true reason of the severity of the enactment against them.

The point is, these penalties were used against groups and individuals that did things that were extremely destructive of the common good and for which other remedies failed. (Remember, the Catholic Church does not believe in an absolute and unlimited religious liberty, but rather one limited by the objective moral order and the needs of the common good. cf. CCC 2109).

 

[Rharris10]

Our government allows abortion and gay marriage. Does that sound civilized?

I agree with your stance on abortion, sure, but your stance on gay marriage?? Come on, now. Surely you aren’t saying that allowing two consenting adults into a civil union is just as uncivilized as burning heretics at the stake. Seems a little dramatic if you ask me - and I hope you don’t take any offense to that. : )