Wish I had Mr. H's email. He can easily argue from the Church's own teachings that it remains a legitimate option. The secular legal system hasn't yet reached the level that guarantees a life sentence really means life and truly protects the innocent. And the Church does teach that the state has the right to impose the penalty.
The RCIA process can be very fulfilling for the sponsors as well as the catechumens and candidates. Sometimes the RCIA team has to remind the sponsors to hold back and let the catechumens and candidates have the first crack at speaking up.
...Because Hightower worked 10 years as a police officer, he still struggles with the Catholic Church's opposition to capital punishment. "I'm still hammering that out," he said....
Siunevada, you are correct, I believe it's called "collective self defense", the right of a civil society to protect itself.
The misconception about Church teaching has been spread by misinformed liberals and the media referring to them. Even the USCCB recently declared one of its goals to be the abolition of the death penalty (so much less controversial that abortion!).. These miscreant bishops model themselves more on the values of European elites than Catholic doctrine.
I read one of Ratzinger's books where he addresses this issue in a side-line comment. If I can find it, I'll post in a few minutes. I sure would like to reassure Mr. Hightower with the Holy Father's own words!
More on capital punishment. See Catechism 2263-2267. Here's a pertinent quote (sorry I can't type the whole thing in here):
"Assuming 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 way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor." (2267)
ALSO, from "Salt of the Earth" when Peter Seewald asks Cardinal Ratzinger why the above passage is in the Catechism if the Church is so vehemently opposed to abortion, when both acts involve protecting life (pg 203 in the paperback version).
Ratzinger's response:
"In the death penalty, when it is legitimately applied, someone is punished who has been proved guilty of the most serious crimes and who also represents a threat to the peace of society. In other words, a guilty person is punished. In the case of abortion, on the other hand, the death penalty is inflicted on someone who is absolutely innocent. And those are two completely different things that you cannot compare one another."