The death penalty does not foster vengeance. It replaces private vengeance and substitutes for the ancient lex talionis of feud and cycles of reprisal.
The pope needs to read on.... Either he has not read all of the Bible or is simply lying.
Yep. I am saying the pope is lying. For starters, God does allow for countries to have capitol punishment: Leviticus 24, Exodus 21:12.
“Thou shalt not murder” is actually what the the verse states. Murder is rather different than killing. How many times did Israel go to war?
Hey your popeship, it’s thou shalt not do murder which is malice aforethought. If the law says you will be executed for murder and you do it, well then, who fault is it?
Seems like this is the first absolute he’s been able to find. Wasn’t it just yesterday he was ok with people shacking up?
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.
So catholic cops???
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.
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.
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."
To be accurate, it is thou shall not murder, not thou shall not kill. It is permissible to kill in self-defense, in defense of another, as a solder in wartime or a state sponsored execution.
Sorry, but this guy is, quite simply, a Nut Job.
"Even when there is question of a person condemned to death, the state does not take away the 'right' of the individual to life. It is then reserved to the public authority to deprive the condemned person of the 'benefit' of life in expiation for his guilt, after he himself, by his crime, has already deprived himself of his right to life.
(Acta Apostolicae Sedis XLIV (1952), p. 787)
Perhaps the Pope should read the Bible, if this is what he said. What the Bible says is different. The prohibition on murder is absolute, but God in many situations permits or even requires killing other people.