[Capt. Tom]

Would this apply to those politicians who support the death penalty as well?

There is no " ex cathedra" dogma of the Catholic church that the death penalty is wrong.

Liberal Catholic heirarchy like present group are entitled to their personal opinions on policy.

If the present Pope doesn't like the death penalty that's his opinion. Until it is made a dogma by an official pronouncement a Catholic can tell him to go take a hike.

But if this anti American Pope makes it official "ex cathedra" a matter of faith and morals taught to the whole church,then if you are still in favor of the death penalty you should be thrown out of the Church.

Not likely to happen since the Catholic church has gone along with the death penalty for centuries suported it and I believe at times had some heretics executed. -Tom

[Stone Mountain]

I see - thanks. So "ex-cathedra" basically refers to Catholic law as written, as opposed to pronouncements from the pope? Is that the kind of thing that gets decided on by those Vatican councils?

If the present Pope doesn't like the death penalty that's his opinion. Until it is made a dogma by an official pronouncement a Catholic can tell him to go take a hike.

I'm not Catholic, so forgive the questions. Isn't there a doctrine of papal infallacy that wouldn't allow this?

[BlackElk]

Anti-American Pope???? This is a bit of a stretch. He allied himself very closely with Reagan on the matter of the Soviets and the Iron Curtain. The pope is the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the monarch of the sovereign Vatican City.

When the pope was monarch of the larger Papal States until the 1850s, the popes regularly carried out the death penalty for the same sorts of civil crimes as most governments. John Paul II is simply not personally favorable to the death penalty. It is NOT a matter of dogma any more than is Vatican foreign policy.

By the standards you seem to apply, most churches would be "anti-American." I personally believe that the war in Iraq was just and moral. No Catholic is required to believe otherwise.