[Governor Dinwiddie]

How can the death penalty be contrary to the Gospel? Without the death penalty there would have been no redemption. The death penalty is central to the Gospel message.
 

[pke]

For me, the “money line:”

“As Joseph Ratzinger pointed out some decades ago, hell is already breaking into this world and annexing portions of it, as people increasingly abandon the protection of the Holy Cross, the name of Jesus, the sacraments and sacramentals, the sacred liturgy. We might say that Satan has established colonial governors in, just to name three of his colonies, the United Nations, the European Union, and the Democratic Party.”

[Mrs. Don-o]

There is a paradox here, in that executing a man known to be innocent --- and Jesus was known to be innocent --- is always the sin of murder. God does not will sin. But He does will the salvation of the world through the supreme sacrifice of Jesus Christ Our Lord.

That is a special case, and cannot, I think, be used as you have used it to justify the death penalty per se.

Mind you, I do NOT believe the death penalty is intrinsically evil, immoral or "inadmissible" as Francis says.

Francis is abrogating the teaching of the OT and NT on this subject. The just and limited use of Capital Punishment is consistently supported by all 266 previous popes and 2,000 years of Catholic Teaching based on those Scriptures.