US Catholic weeklies unite in joint editorial call to end capital punishment [CWN]

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Four American Catholic publications, with widely diverging editorial perspectives, have joined in a call for abolition of the death penalty in the US. The editors of the National …

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The editorial points to an evolution of Catholic thinking on the use of the death penalty, which reached a watershed point with the statement by Pope John Paul II, in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, that the circumstances justifying execution are today “very rare, in not practically non-existent.” The statement notes that the Catechism of the Catholic Church was revised to reflect that view, and then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger wrote hopefully that “the death penalty may be permitted to disappear.” More recently Pope Francis called upon Catholics to work toward “the abolition of the death penalty.”
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Fifteen years ago when I first started reading internet forums I remember how adamantly pro death penalty US Catholics were. Evangelium Vitae was only 5 years old and most hadn’t really known about its death penalty stand. It’s a sign of such hope that the Church by her persistent reiterating can change the tide of a strong movement, towards another way.
 
In principal and theory, I support the death penalty in extreme cases. In practice, I oppose it just about all cases I can think of. I do not trust the government with the power to kill its citizens.
 
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