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TALLAHASSEE, Florida - The Catholic bishops of Florida urged Gov. Rick Scott to commute the death sentence of Jose Antonio Jimenez to a life sentence without parole. Jimenez is scheduled to be executed Aug. 14 at 6 p.m. local time for the 1992 murder of Phyllis Minas. “Both victims of crime and offenders are children of God and members of the same human family,” said an Aug. 10 letter to Scott on behalf of the bishops by Michael B. Sheedy , executive director of the Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops in Tallahassee. “We appreciate your difficult task as governor and...

Most of the commentators on Pope Francis’ attempt to declare the death penalty immoral per se recognize that his utter novelty is a blatant contradiction of Sacred Scripture (both the Old and New Testaments) and the constant teaching of the Church for two millennia.  A few, however, such as this one, argue that Francis’ revised § 2267 of the Catechism of John Paul II is merely “a distressingly ambiguous text which will certainly tend to create an impression of rupture,” but that “it need not be read that way.”Really? But where is the ambiguity? According to Francis, quoting only himself...

The debate over the pope’s recently announced changes to the Catechism on the subject of capital punishment are being hotly debated in every corner of the Catholic world. Some are saying this change is a mere “development of doctrine.” Some think it’s not a change in doctrine at all, but an adjustment to practical application. On The World Over with Raymond Arroyo, Robert Royal characterized it as a “break” with tradition; Fr. Gerald Murray called it an “overthrow.” (Their discussion is worthwhile if you have time for it.) Others – like me – take it a step farther, believing that...

ALBANY, August 3, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – The left-wing governor of New York announced Thursday that he will promote legislation to abolish the death penalty in his state, invoking Pope Francis’ controversial new change to the 1992 Catechism promulgated by Pope St. John Paul II on the subject. Earlier that day, the Pope issued a papal decree revising n. 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to declare that a “new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state,” and therefore “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and...

Did Pope Francis say he wants to let loose Rapists & Murderers like Ted Bundy in 2014? Not only does Pope Francis formally professed the heresy that "the death penalty is inadmissible," but he wants to let loose the Ted Bundys to rape and kill or is he senile or so out of touch with reality that he thinks rapist and murderers are miraculously going to stop raping and killing. [Francis formal heresy:http://catholicmonitor.blogspot.com/2018/08/unambiguously-pope-francis-formally.html?m=1] Bundy was a serial murderer and rapist who, also, tortured the victims and even engaged in necrophilia with their bodies.  If Ted Bundy had not received the death penalty and was instead...

LGBT ‘Catholic’ groups: If Pope can reverse Church teaching on death penalty, why not homosexuality? Dorothy Cummings McLean Follow Dorothy catechism of the catholic church, catholic, death penalty, fortunate families, homosexuality, new ways ministry, pope francis LEXINGTON, Kentucky, August 3, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – Pro-homosexual dissident 'Catholic' groups see in Pope Francis’ ‘changing’ of the Church’s teaching on the death penalty the hope that the Church will one day also change its teaching against homosexuality.  New Ways Ministry called the change in the Catechism proof that "Church teaching can change." "It’s important for Catholic advocates for LGBT equality to take note of...

While writing this column, on another topic, I was distracted by a friend. He had me look at the news for “the latest” from Pope Francis. I was told he had changed Church teaching on the death penalty, by an amendment to the Catechism. Quickly checking the usual Internet sites, I found this rumor confirmed in many places. While I do not trust “the meejah,” generally, I fear in this instance the reports are true. Moreover, I was expecting this to happen. The “new teaching” had been signaled by the Holy Father many times. He has also, incidentally, signaled his...

In a move that should surprise no one, Pope Francis has once again appeared to contradict two millennia of clear and consistent scriptural and Catholic teaching. The Vatican has announced that the Catechism of the Catholic Church will be changed to declare the death penalty “inadmissible” given the “inviolability and dignity of the person” as understood “in the light of the Gospel.”There has always been disagreement among Catholics about whether capital punishment is, in practice, the morally best way to uphold justice and social order. However, the Church has always taught, clearly and consistently, that the death penalty is in...

In the avalanche of reactions to Pope Francis’s audacious move to modify the Catechism so that it says the opposite of what the Church and every published catechism had ever taught before, there is one line of argument that has surfaced a great deal: “Pope Francis is not making a doctrinal statement about the illegitimacy always and everywhere of the death penalty but merely a prudential judgment about the inopportuneness of its use at this time in history.” In a recent article, Dr Alan Fimister correctly points out that even if this reading were plausible, the Pope has overstepped his...

St. Alphonsus: ". . . The public authority is given the power to kill wrongdoers, and that not unjustly . . ." St. Alphonsus, Holy Doctor of the Faith Inasmuch as Pope Francis chose August 2, the traditional memorial of St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, bishop and confessor, Doctor of the Church, to make public his attempt to chuck down the Memory Hole the irreformable truth that "the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty," it is only fitting that the faithful recall what this eminent Doctor of Truth had to say on this...

The big news of the day in Catholic (and other) circles concerns the announcement that Francis has issued a rescript to the CDF changing the neo-church teaching on the death penalty as stated in the so-called Catechism of the Catholic Church. (CCC)In short, CCC 2267 most recently reflected the wishes of John Paul II to say that cases of the death penalty as an absolute necessity for effectively preventing crime are “very rare, if not practically non-existent;” the quote coming from his Encyclical, Evangelium Vitae. This treatment left the door cracked ever-so-slightly for the just use of capital punishment;...

The Latest Addition to the Bergoglian Pseudo-Magisterium...For the past five years the Church has suffered under a Pope who actually believes that the Magisterium is literally whatever he thinks. To quote his own admission in this regard, made during one of his infamous interviews: “I’m constantly making statements, giving homilies. That’s magisterium. That’s what I think, not what the media say that I think. Check it out; it’s very clear.”  It occurs to me that a “magisterium” one is urged to “check out” might have a rather ephemeral quality quite inconsistent with the concept of the Magisterium rightly understood. And now the...

Pastor of Latin Mass Parish Manfully Shepherds His Flock Across the transom just now.  Please distribute.PRAY FOR THIS PRIEST, HIS CONFRERES, SUPERIORS, and ALL HOLY PRIESTS. Dear Parishioner, You may have read that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has recently announced the the Catechism of the Catholic Church will be amended to teach that the Death Penalty, i.e. the judicial condemnation of an evil-doer to death, by competent authority, is now to be considered always inadmissible. Leaving aside any discussion of particulars, and making reference only to the general principle, such a position runs contrary to the...

"Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. But I have prayed for you,that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, confirm your brethren." Luke 22:31-32 August 2, 2018 Dear Bishop S----, Thank you for your letter and thanks also to S and D and P and R who have also responded to my concerns: I appreciate this, too. But it is not enough. Centuries ago, faithful Catholics didn't ordinarily need to question their Bishop. If he were an honest Catholic, well and good; but if not, it made little difference to...

What was black is now white: Pope "changes Catechism" to declare death penalty "inadmissible in all cases". The Church was wrong in a major issue literally of life and death. Is the Pope a kind of "Prophet", as the "First President" of the Mormons, receiving new teachings that contradict completely teachings that the Magisterium had taught since Apostolic Times? That is what seems to come from the "alteration" of the Catechism of the Catholic Church of 1992 promoted by the current Pope and published today: The Supreme Pontiff Francis, in an audience granted on May 11, 2018, to the undersigned...

Just as the latest round of homosexual network and sex abuse allegations in the Church are reaching a fever pitch, Pope Francis – who has been eerily quiet of late – dropped a nuclear theological bomb into our midst.From Crux: According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the death penalty now is no longer admissible under any circumstances.The Vatican announced on Thursday Pope Francis approved changes to the compendium of Catholic teaching published under Pope John Paul II.“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” is what the Catechism of...

August 2, 2018 (LifeSiteNews) – In the boldest and most reckless move to date in a pontificate that was already out of control and sowing confusion on a massive scale, the Vatican has announced Pope Francis’s substitution, in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, of a new doctrine on capital punishment. Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Magisterium of the Church for 2,000 years have upheld the intrinsic legitimacy of the death penalty for grave crimes against the common good of Church or State. There had never been any doubt in the minds of anyone on this subject. It was...

An association of lay Catholics is trying to return Ireland to its Catholic roots. John Lacken is the secretary of the Lumen Fidei Institute, an association of Catholic laity, whose initiative is to educate and bring back the Church's teachings on the Catholic family. Lacken told Church Militant they recently published a book on Hell and are working on one about Purgatory.  Lacken said in his research into why Ireland lost its faith, he noted that it traced back to how Humanae Vitae was received by the Church. He said six professors from Maynooth Seminary publicly dissented from its condemnation of...

A letter that Cardinal Karol Wojtyla sent to Pope Paul VI in 1969, published here in full for the first time in English, underscores that Humanae vitae’s ban on contraception is an “infallible” and “irrevocable” teaching that the Church herself “has no power to change.” According to Msgr. Livio Melina, former president of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family in Rome, Wojtyła’s letter to Paul VI is also decisive as it demonstrates that Humanae vitae “is not a matter of advice entrusted to the interpretation of conscience, but of a binding doctrinal teaching.” The...

An article by the Vatican correspondent Cindy Wooden of Catholic News Service provides further ominous signs that Pope Francis intends to undermine the teaching of Humanae Vitae (HV), which reaffirmed the Church’s infallible teaching on the intrinsic evil of contraception, in the same manner he has undermined the teaching of all his predecessors on the intrinsic evil of adultery in the form of divorce and “remarriage.”  That is, he will reduce the teaching to an ideal that is worth pursuing, to be sure, but not a divine command to which there are no exceptions, violation of which involves intrinsically disordered...