Frankly, I haven't enjoyed it. It is ineffably sad to see a putative Catholic self-destruct and adopt protestantism and refer to the Doctrinal explanations of an intellectual giant as "lame."
Self-destruct? All you can do is throw the Pope's words at me and I'M the one who's deficient?
Supporting the death penalty is not "adopting protestantism," and you know it.
The Pope has given NO doctrinal explanations; he cites the "changed circumstances" or, rather, "the improved state of penal systems" as the reason for his changed view.
Nothing "doctrinal" about that.