(Catholic) Bishop says Arkansas AG wrong for participating in rally

A Catholic bishop who has led prayers at Arkansas anti-abortion rallies says he will not take part this year because its featured speaker is a public official who actively pushed for the state’s aggressive execution schedule last year.

Bishop Anthony Taylor wrote an open letter to the state’s 125,000 Catholics inviting them to special Masses instead of attending the event featuring Attorney General Leslie Rutledge.

“Arkansas Right to Life has chosen as the keynote speaker for the Rally a person who has good anti-abortion credentials but otherwise is decidedly not an appropriate pro-life speaker,” Taylor wrote. He said Rutledge “worked tirelessly to secure the execution of 4 criminals who posed no further threat to society.”

Arkansas executed four men in eight days last April after Gov. Asa Hutchinson initially scheduled eight executions in 11 days - adopting a quick turnaround so the men could be put to death before one of the state’s three lethal injection drugs expired. Rutledge’s office fought in court to preserve the schedule.

“The Diocese of Little Rock was very vocal in appealing for clemency for these four men, but we were opposed at every turn by Attorney General Rutledge,” Taylor wrote to his flock.

Three of the eight condemned inmates won stays and Hutchinson granted clemency to a fourth condemned prisoner. Four were put to death.

“I look forward to being the keynote at this year’s March for Life and encourage anyone interested in protecting the sanctity of life for the unborn to participate,” she said in a statement emailed from her office.

Sunday’s rally is the 40th annual protest. One of Taylor’s predecessors, Bishop Andrew J. McDonald, was among its early supporters. Taylor gave the opening prayer at last year’s rally and has offered prayers at others. The march is typically held on the Sunday nearest the Jan. 22 anniversary of the 1973 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that legalized abortion.

“The Church teaches a consistent ethic of life in which human life and human dignity must be protected from the first moment of conception to natural death and every stage in between,” Taylor wrote Wednesday. “Even people who have been sentenced to death deserve this dignity, which is why capital punishment must be abolished.”

The march’s organizer, Arkansas Right to Life, said it was a “single-issue organization” dedicated to stopping abortion.

“We hope that everyone who shares our views, that innocent children should be protected, will support and attend the March, regardless of their views on other issues in which Arkansas Right to Life does not take a stand,” its executive director, Rose Mimms, said in an emailed statement.

CCC 2267

excerpt: 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 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 nonexistent.”68

Catechism of the Council of Trent

The power of life and death is permitted to certain civil magistrates because theirs is the responsibility under law to punish the guilty and protect the innocent. Far from being guilty of breaking this commandment [Thy shall not kill], such an execution of justice is precisely an act of obedience to it. For the purpose of the law is to protect and foster human life. This purpose is fulfilled when the legitimate authority of the State is exercised by taking the guilty lives of those who have taken innocent lives.

In the Psalms we find a vindication of this right: “Morning by morning I will destroy all the wicked in the land, cutting off all evildoers from the city of the Lord” (Ps. 101:8).

Oh no,here’s just the lie validating my point: JP II’s catechism is worthless.”

The truth it is considered equal.

Here is a good excerpt from expert answers on EWTN:

3. Circumstances. There are, of course, individual circumstances related to the particular capital case which, as I noted, a just law takes into account. Here I want to consider, however, certain general circumstances. The Pope has noted that in the developed countries the possibility exists to incarcerate criminals for life, removing definitively any threat to society. Thus, the Catechism continues in paragraph 2267,

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority should 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.

Another circumstance, and one related to “the concrete conditions of the common good,” is the nature of our society. We have become a culture of death. The question really arises as to whether we have just laws, and whether we can execute those we do have justly. Abortion has worked a truly horrible corruption of our country, for which we are beginning to pay the price, not just in demonic violence but in the “corruptio mentis” (corruption of mind and heart) of people in general. This is manifested in the malfeasance of justice, by police, juries, prosecutors and judges at all levels of the justice system. In the early Church a similar situation existed. During the time of pagan Rome, Catholics could not hold civil or military office if they could be obliged to judge capital crimes or execute capital punishment. Only after the Church was legalized and the state influenced by its teaching would Catholics be allowed such offices. As the state becomes less influenced by the truth the Catholic finds himself returning to the quandary of the early Christians. Thus, while the state may have the right, all other factors being respected, to execute the criminal it also has the opportunity for mercy. If the greater good of the society is protected adequately then the Church argues for mercy, both so that the respect due to every life is restored and so that the unconverted might convert and save their souls. Thus, in Evangelium Vitae and the Catechism (2267) the Pope concludes,

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.” (EV 56)

http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/capital_punishment.htm

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