Posted on 09/30/2004 12:36:06 PM PDT by JeffersonRepublic.com
Cardinal Joseph Bernardin articulated a consistent ethic of life, which included opposition to both abortion and the death penalty, in 1985. Ten years later, in his encyclical The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II taught that opposing capital punishment should be part of a pro-life witness for a culture of life that promotes human dignity and solidarity. The National Conference of Catholic Bishops as well as individual bishops across the country have repeated the teaching.
(Excerpt) Read more at americamagazine.org ...
What would the results be in a state without the death penalty? Would not one expect that a trial that may result in a life sentence take longer and cost more than a trial that may result in lesser consequences?
It's OK with me to abandon the death penalty, so long as the punishment delivered is worse than death. Give each criminal worthy of death a knife and a blanket and dump them on an uninhabited rock in the Aleutians. They'll kill each other off, or survive so miserably that they'll wish they had been executed.
As someone who goes to spanish mass each week ( the anglo mass here is too weak morally), I am dissappointed in the pope wanting a WORLD UN tax, which will be corrupt for feeding the poor.
Why do we need Catholic charities or even the church in such a corrupt, secular society.
I think El Papa has bigger fish to fry.
So many focus on that one little word---"innocent"---when trying to draw the false distinction as to why they are so opposed to killing the unborn yet quite comfortable in killing some who are guilty (and committing state-sponsored murder at that!)
Ah, linguistic gymnastics. Next thing you know, these folks will be trying to convince you and me that a horse chestnut is really a chestnut horse.
I'll side with Pope John Paul II on this one. Murder is murder, let God Himself be the ultimate judge of who lives and who dies (save for self-defense and military conflict, which is in essence self-defense).
Life without parole is dying a thousand little deaths each day for decades anyway, and it is something that can be done that does not degrade the moral health of the country in the process.
This is something that I have struggled with for a long time. I think the death penalty is the easy way out for these animals, but the nature of our prision system allows the scum of our society to live mostly as they would on the outside. Drugs, sex, and many other things are just as available in prison as they are on the outside. Therefore a quick trip to hell for these clowns is preferable, even though they do not have to suffer nearly enough to pay for their crimes in this world.
I could sign that death warrant with a clear conscience. Clearly, he'll kill yet again unless we take this extreme measure.
Sorry, but he's left us little choice in the matter.
So if a person kills someone in self-defense, aren't they essentially acting as God by taking the life of their assailant?
I'm in favor of solitary confinement and life in prison for murderers, just don't end their life prematurely on my tax dollars. Here's some more stats on the costs of the death penalty:
http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/article.php?did=108&scid=7#From%20DPIC
So your position is that human beings are capable of frustrating God's plans?
What if God had something that he wanted the murderer to do in one place but he was a thousand miles away because he was in prison? Should we stop incarcerating people too?
People die when they die. If someone dies because the killed another person in cold blood, that is just. That's what the Bible teaches, that's what the Church teaches, that's what right reason teaches.
Bernardin was the best friend the abortionists ever had. He was their most powerful mole in the Catholic Church, and their most brilliant strategist and rhetorician. Even in death, he continues to do more than anyone else to give pro-abortion "Catholics," and leftist Catholics who seek cover for complacency about abortion, the rhetorical smokescreen they need. His "Seamless Garment" and "consistent ethic of life" were always intended as subtle smears against real pro-lifers.
Consider this. If a murderer is executed the expense is over. If a murderer not executed is released for any reason and murders again should not that cost be added to the non-death penalty side.
I figure this is the honest and fair way to handle the death penalty issue. If you murder someone, you go to prison for life, hard labor and absolutely no parole. HOWEVER while incarcerated, if the inmate commits even one more violent offense against a prison worker or another inmate, their sentence is commuted to death and carried out immediately.
I figure, they are given one more chance at life, something their victim(s) didnt' have. But if they abuse that chance, they lose their life.
If you use lethal force to stop someone who is attacking you, I don't believe so. But if you shoot him again after he no longer presents a clear threat, then you very well may be.
But that's just my opinion.
Fine.
I'll side with the Council of Trent, Pope St. Pius V (among others), the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the Scriptures and St. Thomas Aquinas.
Bernadin may have professed to be anti-abortion but he loaded the Chicago diocese with pro-abortion apologists and was one of the earliest to embrace publicly Pro-abortion 'Catholics'.
No one likes the death penalty. On the other hand, no one likes to have their brother, sister, father, mother or children killed in cold blood and watch their killer walk free in as little as 7 years.
I can speak to this issue, since I had an older brother murdered in cold blood when he was only 17 years old and serving his country in the U.S. Navy.
While I am strongly pro-life, I feel there are certainly circumstances where Old Testament justice is required. Pre-meditated murder is one of those circumstances. If you have a problem pulling the switch (or injecting these days)
just let someone else do it. But don't deny the families of victims their closure.
There is a difference between innocents being killed and guilty murderous felons being sentenced for their crimes. The liberal left sees this opposite -- they want to kill the innocent babies, and spare the lives of the criminal murderers, calling it "mercy".
So the death of a convicted criminal deserves a harsher punishment that the death of a lawful citizen.
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