It will come as no surprise from what I have said that I do not agree with the encyclical Evangelium Vitae and the new Catholic catechism (or the very latest version of the new Catholic catechism), according to which the death penalty can only be imposed to protect rather than avenge, and that since it is (in most modern societies) not necessary for the former purpose, it is wrong. That, by the way, is how I read those documents—and not, as Avery Cardinal Dulles would read them, simply as an affirmation of two millennia of Christian teaching that retribution is a proper purpose (indeed, the principal purpose) of criminal punishment, but merely adding the “prudential judgment” that in modern circumstances condign retribution “rarely if ever” justifies death. (See “Catholicism & Capital Punishment,” FT, April 2001.) I cannot square that interpretation with the following passage from the encyclical: Sliding his tray down the line of Doctrine in the Catholic Cafeteria goes one of the brightest men in America. Unfortunately, he is in the same line with Frances Quisling, the SSPX, Richard McBrien and the rest of the Protestant-Catholics who engage in private judgement and seek out their own "canonical experts" to assure them that THEY are exempt from this or that Doctrine because, no matter what the Pope says, the "canonical experts" have the real authority in the Catholic Church.
Scalia locuta est, Causa finita est. I sure wish the Pope would start listening to the real authorities...
It seems to me the "Real Authority" to trust would be the Word of God.
Last time I checked, that hadn't changed much in the last couple thousand years. It still supports the death penalty.