Posted on 06/21/2016 12:32:44 PM PDT by Phillyred
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Francis is amplifying his opposition to capital punishment, saying it's an offense to life, contradicts God's plan and serves no purpose for punishment. In a video message to an anti-death penalty congress in Norway, Francis declared: "The commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' has absolute value and applies both to the innocent and to the guilty."
Francis has gone beyond his predecessors and traditional Catholic teaching in saying there is simply no justification for the death penalty today. He said Tuesday that rather than rendering justice, it fosters vengeance. Church teaching allows for recourse to capital punishment when it is the only way to defend lives "effectively" against an aggressor.
Francis said: "It must not be forgotten that the inviolable and God-given right to life also belongs to the criminal."
(Excerpt) Read more at philly.com ...
It is. Just read the New English Bible.
It's, "thou shalt not commit murder." Proof of this is that the Old Law actually required the death penalty for a number of crimes. Homosexuality. Adultery. Witchcraft. Etc.
This Pope is typical of so many pastors and congregations committed to secular moral exhibitionism residing within the comforting light of the asymmetrical theological analysis as required for premeditated ignorance. Here we have a trade school graduate willfully rejecting even the most basic documents of his trade. However, I believe the Catholic Church will survive even his imbicility.
Now contrast this position with that of C. S. Lewis, who experienced two world wars and a depression during his distinguished academic career. In terms of pure intelligence few surpassed him. After WW I Lewis entered Oxford as an undergraduate student, where he won a triple first; the highest honors in three areas of study. Such was the beginning of an outstanding career. As a Christian few have surpassed him for accurately tempering a superior intellect with the wondrous mystery of the Lord’s existence as absolute righteousness and absolute love resulting in perfect justice.
He balanced those academic achievements with previous experiences from the trenches of WW I. As an Irishman, Lewis could not be drafted, but turned down a scholarship in 1917, and chose to volunteer. Lewis was commissioned while still 18, and was shipped to the front line near Arras, France. He joined Third Battalion, Somerset Light Infantry in the Somme valley on his 19th birthday. He was wounded by an exploding artillery shell in April 1918 and never returned to active service.
The quote I remember comes from Mere Christianity, which included a compilation of radio addresses he gave from 1941 through 1944, and was later expanded into a book. He gave the radio addresses after experiencing the Blitz and the threat of Nazi invasion as well as trench warfare when a young man.
“Does loving your enemy mean not punishing him? No, for loving myself does not mean that I ought not to subject myself to punishment – even to death. If one has committed a murder, the right Christian thing to do would be to give yourself up to the bench and be hanged. It is, therefore, in my opinion, perfectly right for a Christian judge to sentence a man to death or a Christian solder to kill an enemy. I always have thought so, ever since I became a Christian, and long before the war, and I still think so now that we are at peace. It is no good quoting “Thou shalt not kill.” There are two Greek words: the ordinary word to kill and the word to murder. And when the Christ quotes that commandment He uses the murder one in all three accounts, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. And I am told there is the same distinction in Hebrew. All killing is not murder any more than all sexual intercourse is adultery. When soldiers came to St. John the Baptist asking what to do, he never remotely suggested that they ought to leave the army: nor Christ when He met a Roman sergeant-major – what they call a centurion….. We may kill if necessary, but we must not hate or enjoy it.”
For an introduction to reality, this Pope could see the distinction for the Hebrew of the Old Testament by simply reviewing Strong’s Concordance. The commandment “Thou shalt not kill” uses the word ratsach, which by my count appears 33 times in the Old Testament, and always refers to what our civil courts would interpret as a sub-set of first and second degree murder. I find two others words for kill and slay, muwth and harag, and three for destroy, shamad, shachath, and charam. These appear over 230 times and encompass all accounts of warfare and capital punishment. There is another word for killing a sacrifice, but I did not attempt to count its appearance.
When faced with individuals such as this Pope who displays a clearly fledging intellect and mundane life experiences, I would always choose to take my council from people like C. S. Lewis. Lewis expressed a durable morality earned in ultimate bloody deluges and the great economic tragedy of the 20th century.
Good point! (This pope doesn’t seem able or inclined to provide scriptural authority much for what he says? But I’m pretty sure he could “justify” shacking up with a “liberal” rendering ( word carefully chosen) of Isaiah, where, depending on your choice of translations, shacking is recognized — “The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard And it totters like a shack, For its transgression is heavy upon it, And it will fall, never to rise again.”. If anyone can use that verse to bless shacking up, he could I’m sure -— Smile smile
The translation of “Thou Shalt not Kill” is actually Thou shalt not commit murder.
So catholic cops???
“There is a new covenant now. Who did Jesus say to kill?”
Well, it is the Apostle Paul, but:
“3 For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority? Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, 4 for he is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain. For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer.” - Romans 13
Or Peter:
“13 Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every human institution, whether to a king as the one in authority, 14 or to governors as sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and the praise of those who do right.”
And of course, the God of the Old Testament IS the God of the New Testament. Civil authority included the right to kill, as acknowledged by Jesus:
“10 So Pilate said to him, “You will not speak to me? Do you not know that I have authority to release you and authority to crucify you?” 11 Jesus answered him, “You would have no authority over me at all unless it had been given you from above. Therefore he who delivered me over to you has the greater sin.”
Pilate’s authority was not his own, but from God - as a ruler who “who carries out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer”. That the wrath was not justified in this case does not negate the fact that Jesus recognized it.
The proper translation is “Do not murder”. The Bible itself calls for the death penalty. It’s sad that I’m not even a Christian and I seem to know more about it than the Pope.
Well, I'm not Catholic, and after hearing some of this bozo's uttering, I don't want to be, but anyhow...I don't think, even as the so-called Voice of God, he does not have "repeal" authority.
It is unfortunate that the Pope has the audience he does...it's a bully pulpit...easily abused, and certainly corruptible.
But as history has definitely shown us, he is not the first, nor will he be the last, to make efforts to destroy and break down civilizations and peoples.
We live in some dark times.
The job of being a Catholic military chaplain just got a whole lot more interesting.
What utter bulls#it.
So, in that case, Hitler wins.
Moron commie pope (lower case) usurper.
Hmm...must have missed Romans:
‘It is good to fear the sword of the state, for it has its purpose’ (paraphrased)
No it is not absolute. If it was Catholics would not be able to serve in the military and go into combat. I write this as one who is opposed to the death penalty for a variety of reasons. But it can still be a legitimate exercise of state power though under very limited circumstances.
Wow the pope doesnt know Christianity, or even the OT very well.
The commandment is thou shalt not kill without just cause. Thus our distinctions between justified reasons for killing someone, versus unjust reasons.
I expect he will dismantle all his security forces then, very quickly. They cant kill anyone who wants to kill him. He cant kill anyone who wants to kill him wither.
Or more accurately, thou shalt not kill without just cause.
Those still lost in sin are under the law. The law still applies.
Go tell your story to a judge they cant give you the death penalty because we are under a new covenant. Or to a police officer that they cant shoot you for something because they too are sinners.
It was to expose those folks’ own hypocrisy. That doesnt mean nobody can enforce any laws on anyone else because we are sinners and saints at the same time.
1 Samuel 15:3
"Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey."
I know he found an 11th commandment earlier: Gay is OK.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty is appropriate for “heinous crimes.” This Pope is a disaster for the Church.
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