[goldstategop]

The Catholic Establishment's PC anti-Death Penalty Crusade runs counter to biblical teachings, centuries of Church doctrine, common sense and above all, the cardinal principle of justice. A murderer shouldn't be allowed to live precisely because the murdered person has been already deprived of the one gift the Church claims to cherish: life. Why should the murderer's life be more equal than the victim's? To that the Catholic Establishment can offer no answer. Taking an innocent life is a wicked deed. Multiply that by the hundreds of thousands of Saddam Hussein's victims and because of that, his execution would not serve to bring about the fullest measure of human justice possible in an earthly existence. But it would bring a measure of closure to those suffering the loss of their loved ones and it would serve as a deterrent to others contemplating committing similiar deeds. And then there is the fact the murderer once executed, can never murder again. On all these grounds, the death penalty then, is both the imposition of human justice and well as an act of mercy for the community. The Catholic Establishment might want to remember its opposition to the death penalty amounts to showing mercy to the cruel when its necessary to be showing mercy to the merciful by upholding the severest punishment sanctioned by God towards those who are unremittingly evil by nature.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

[Hardastarboard]

“I couldn’t worship a god who is less compassionate than I am.”

How very convenient. Judging God based on your own "moral" precepts. I would suspect that the woman that spoke this also supports abortion at any phase. How would she reconcile that with God's view of the matter? By saying that it's a personal choice that God should stay out of, since he's a middle aged white male?

[livius]

This, unfortunately, is something that has to be understood from the point of view of internal Church politics. Most Catholics would agree that the DP is not a good thing in itself, but that it is necessary either to protect society from a particular criminal or to maintain social order in general in societies made up of fallen mankind, as are all human societies.

The radical anti-DP position is a leftist position that was thrown into the mix primarily to cloud the Church's opposition to abortion. Most of the poast-Vatican II left-wing clergy (including some bishops) were just fine with abortion and really resented being forced to preach or teach against it. I remember how the lefties used to refuse to read Cardinal O'Connor's annual pro-life letter.

Insisting that opposition to the death penalty be included in all of the bishops' statements on pro-life matters was a way of getting back at what they perceived as the dread "conservatives," who were generally anti-abortion but had no objection to the death penalty, and thereby trying to reduce support for anti-abortion statements (since "conservatives" would then find themselves having to support something they did not agree with). It was also an attempt to curry favor with secular leftists, who are pro-abortion but anti-death penalty.

A lot of docile but not truly leftist bishops simply went along with whatever the dominant lefties in the USCCB wanted; and a few who were not liberal, such as Chaput, seem to have some obsessive personal objection to the DP. But their lumping together of the DP and opposition to abortion is not accurate from the point of view of Church teaching, although this has also been clouded by the fact that the Church is in Europe and Europeans are opposed to the death penalty because they see it as something American and they hate Americans.

So it's a complicated situation. I think the current pope is trying to sort it out, because throwing the death penalty in with abortion definitely clouds the issue and he is aware of this.

[madprof98]

So now the Holy Father is "the Catholic Establishment"??? John Paul is a saint. It is sad that so many Catholics today - many of them self-described as orthodox - are hellbent on attacking the reverence for human life that he taught us.

[jonno]

bump

[Tribune7]

only God can take it away,” Martino continued.

So how did Saddam manage to murder all those people then?

[khnyny]

The Catholic Church opposes the death penalty and abortion. There is a congruence in their philosophical views on these issues and I don't see the problem with that, they are a religious institution and support the concept of life being sacrosanct. The Old Testament was "an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth", but Christ was/is the New Covenant.

That being said, the Church does not outlaw capital punishment per se, but you have to understand that the Church looks at everything through the prism of their being a religious institution, not a governmental body.

The title of the article is revolting, btw, just another example of Catholic bashing and ignorance.

[khnyny]

Ping.

[NYer]

Catholic Ping
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[Gerish]

To deny the death penalty is to insist on life for evil. If the most hardened criminal goes unpunished, we adhere to a system that denies life to those whose persons were violated. This grants life to those who commit evil acts.

[VOA]

bump

[oldbrowser]

The Catholic Establishment's PC anti-Death Penalty Crusade runs counter to biblical teachings, centuries of Church doctrine, common sense and above all, the cardinal principle of justice.

How about the 10 commandments ?

What would Jesus have done ?

[narses]

+

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[Rodney King]

Well, I sure would hope that the Church would be on an anti-DP crusade.