Ping. (As usual, if you would like to be added to or removed from my "conservative Catholics" ping list, please send me a FReepmail. Please note that this is occasionally a high volume ping list and some of my ping posts are long.)
I pray for more priests like Father Pavone.
Vatican II paved the way to a politically correct Catholic Church.
Enough of this "seamless garment" babble.
While I agree totally with Fr. Pavone's statements about the killing of the pre-born, I do disagree with the following:
"... In regard to the state punishing wrongdoers, he writes, "the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non- existent" (56)."
I would simply say that Genesis 9:6 is PRESCRIPTIVE, not merely predictive. The death penalty for murderers is not primarily for the purpose of defending society, although that is one of its benefits. I think the primary purpose is to uphold the human dignity of both the murder victim and even the murderer himself. It is simply proportionate punishment, and anything less, such as saying that cases of its excercise as an absolute necessity are rare, is an affront to justice and to human dignity.
Cordially,