Posted on 02/23/2016 6:21:46 AM PST by NRx
The pope wants a worldwide ban on the death penalty and it is not hard to think of countries where the range of offences that attract it is frighteningly large. The frequency of its application is just as worrying but to state that it can never be justified is wrong.
I have never defended the use or availability of capital punishment on the grounds of retribution and would echo his holiness's own phraseology in saying that no matter how serious the crime, it is wrong if its purpose is merely an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Using it as a deterrent is, however, a very different matter for it saves innocent lives.
Pope Francis claims that the death penalty is "an offence against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the person" but what about the life and dignity of a victim who would not be a victim if the death penalty were in force? For if capital punishment deters - and I will shortly be looking at the evidence for the assertion that it does - then effectively there is a choice of lives to be made: those of the guilty or those of the innocent. We cannot pretend that choice is not there.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Rarely do I defend this Pope, but that has been the official position of the Catholic Church for much longer than any of us have been alive.
The death penalty is a good thing.
The link below tells of a death-row inmate released after 30 years who waited a whole 2 days to murder again.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/3399267/posts
We need the death penalty and it should be by public execution. Executing someone without the public being able to see is wasting its deterrent impact for those who might consider murdering someone.
Actually it’s not.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, although in the narrowest of circumstances, permits the death penalty.
Abortion... an act that is always an abject moral evil is a non-negotiable. However, Our current Holy Father is more concerned with popularity than truth, and would rather discuss the former than the latter.
Wrong. The Catechism states that it is a legitimate form of punishment, but should be only used when the offender has been identified with certainty and when other methods of deterrence/protection do not work. And such cases are rare - what “practically nonexistent” means is subject to some debate, but I think most people agree in principle with this position. Sec. 2267.
It has always been the case that laws of the state are not the same as laws for individuals. Wars and death penalties were reserved for the state, not individuals. The death penalty was instituted by God after the flood.
“4But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. 5And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. 6Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” (Gen. 9).
This is not for revenge, punishment, or to instill fear, but out of reverence for the life of man, made in the image of God. It is almost sacramental.
Actually no it has not. The Pope is endorsing a change in Church doctrine that is very recent. The traditional teaching of the Catholic Church supports capital punishment.
Less than normal pope calls for Christianity to ignore St Paul and Romans 13.
This man is deficient in so many ways. One wonders if senility isn’t setting in. He has to be “corrected/explained” every time he opens his mouth.
And just as anti-Biblical.
Catholic teaching is that the death penalty is allowed as a last resort if it is the only means to protect society from a violent criminal.
The pope is wrong, but is entitled to his opinion.
I’m against the death penalty because I don’t want government to have the power to kill a citizen.
I’ll stick with the Catechism of the Catholic Church. The Pope is not speaking ex cathedra, and the magesterium hasn’t changed doctrine.
Question: If the Romans had no penalty 2000 years ago, would there have been a crucifixtion and resurrection of Our Lord?
“This man is deficient in so many ways.”
He is a leftist, probably one of those infiltrated into the world’s seminaries by the KGB.
You are right to call him “this man.” The pope is a man.
We have had bad popes before. They died. The Church lives.
“If the Romans had no death penalty 2000 years ago”
I am so disappointed in this pope. JPII was the best of my lifetime, and Benedict was efficient and serious-minded. Francis bounces around like a ball in a pinball arcade.
Fair disclosure: I’m ordained in the Methodist but long an admirer of many aspects of Catholicism and many of Orthodoxy.
“I’m against the death penalty because I don’t want government to have the power to kill a citizen.”
I see your point, but the government is (was, should be) us. If you don’t execute murderers, it shows that you’re not serious about it.
It tells wrongdoers, “You can kill us, but we won’t kill you.”
Sending these gang-banging savages to jail for eight or ten years for killing someone is just not a deterrent. It makes the government look powerless to impose meaningful punishment.
The dembiciles have saddled us with a large population of uneducated, uneducable, unteachable, unappeasable barbarians, who do not see themselves as Americans or a part of American society.
Because they are without sexual morality, they have been growing in numbers. To this is now added the Invasion of the Border Crashers.
The only thing that has ever had any effect on the numbers is itself another atrocity: more black babies were aborted than born in NYC in a recent year.
Want to talk about black lives mattering? See how much they matter in an abortuary.
It is not senility, he is evil. This Pope has ruined the formerly rhetorical proverbial question; “Is the Pope Catholic?”
The Catholic Church will survive this bad Pope as is has survived others.
It won’t be long.
Death penalty as a deterrent only works if it is used enough.
Back in the 80s in CA, Rose Bird, the CA chief justice ruled the death penalty unconstitutional and commuted sentences to life with possibility of parole. Many got out, many went back to crime and some killed again. Bird was thrown out of office by the voters in a recall vote.
I am for the death penalty in cases where proof is undeniable like the head is found in the suspect's fridge - in other words, iron clad. I would be OK with the balance of murderers without that kind of iron clad evidence being locked up in jail for life.
Which explains why Charlie Manson is still alive and kicking, begging for parole every two years. (spit)
Nope...here is the definitive quote:
"2267 Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent.""
The last sentence is simply wrong. We CANNOT effectively absolutely insure that those who murder will not again do so...either of fellow inmates in the system, or in general society after release or escape. I saw one headline where in some MidEast country, a group of terrorists actually TUNNELED INTO the prison to effect the release of some of their "comrades".
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.