Supreme Court ruling on death penalty encouraging; now let’s do more

Denver Catholic Register ^ | 9 March 2005 | Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput O.F.M. Cap.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Supreme Court ruling on death penalty encouraging; now let’s do more

Except in most extreme cases, death penalty cannot be justified

On Tuesday last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Constitution bars the execution of killers who were younger than 18 when they did their crimes. Until last week, such death sentences were legal in 19 states.
The decision revokes the death sentences of nearly six-dozen underage murderers. It also prevents any state from seeking to execute minors for future crimes.

From the Church’s perspective, this is important news; a victory for careful reflection and common decency. As Americans, we take great pride in our tradition of rule by law and the quality of our justice system. Much of that pride is well-earned.

Unfortunately, the deeper problem — the death penalty itself — remains with us. Here’s a simple fact: If the defendant in a murder trial is financially well off and white, he has a much lower chance of receiving the death penalty than if he’s poor or a person of color. In some states, the inability to hire a private attorney can amount to a death sentence.

Over the last decade, dozens of convicted “murderers” have walked off death row, exonerated by DNA evidence that proved their innocence. Wrongful convictions in capital cases are frightening enough. But even more troubling is what these miscarriages of justice imply: Many other innocent people have almost certainly died, executed for crimes they didn’t commit.

Experience shows that, quite apart from the serious flaws built into the death penalty in too many states, capital punishment simply doesn’t work as a deterrent. Nor does it heal or redress any wounds, because only forgiveness can do that. It does succeed though in answering violence with violence — a violence wrapped in the piety of state approval, which implicates all of us as citizens in the taking of more lives.

Turning away from capital punishment does not diminish our support for the families of murder victims. They bear a terrible burden of grief, and they rightly demand justice. Real murderers deserve punishment, but even murderers retain their God-given dignity as human beings. When we take a murderer’s life we only add to the violence in an already violent culture, and we demean our own dignity in the process. Moreover, we don’t need to do it. In the United States in 2005, the guilty can be punished and public safety can be ensured without sending a single human being to an execution chamber.

We should remember that Catholic teaching on the death penalty flows from the sanctity of the human person. All life is sacred. Every person, even the convicted murderer, is created by God with God-given dignity.

While both Scripture and Catholic tradition support the legitimacy of the death penalty under certain restricted conditions, the Church has repeatedly called us to a higher road over the past five decades as an antidote to the growing culture of death around us. We don’t need to kill people to protect society. We don’t need to kill people to punish the guilty. And we should never be in a hurry to take anyone’s life. As a result, except in the most extreme circumstances, capital punishment cannot be justified. In developed countries like our own, it should have no place in our public life.

In the wake of last week’s encouraging Supreme Court decision, we need to think carefully about the kind of justice we want to witness to our young people. Most American Catholics, like the vast majority of their fellow citizens, support the death penalty. That doesn’t make it right. But it does ensure that the wrong-headed lesson of violence “fixing” the violent among us will be taught to another generation. As children of God, we’re better than this, and we need to start acting like it. We need to end the death penalty now.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Now you know why Chaput will allow Helen Prejean to speak in his Archdiocese.

[paudio]

I find the Catholics position in two issues very interesting. No to abortion & euthanasia. But also no to death penalty.

[walden]

From my reading in the bible, they're also unbiblical on this issue. God specifically indicated that the proper punishment for murder was death.

[Uri’el-2012]

While both Scripture and Catholic tradition support the legitimacy of the death penalty under certain restricted conditions, the Church has repeatedly called us to a higher road over the past five decades as an antidote to the growing culture of death around us. We don’t need to kill people to protect society. We don’t need to kill people to punish the guilty. And we should never be in a hurry to take anyone’s life. As a result, except in the most extreme circumstances, capital punishment cannot be justified. In developed countries like our own, it should have no place in our public life.

 

Denver Catholic Register ^  | 9 March 2005 | Most Rev. Charles J. Chaput O.F.M. Cap.

 

 

Let us pray for our lost brother: Charles Chaput

 

Abba

 Father, creator of the universe

We pray that you send your Ru’ach haKodesh

to remove the scales from the eyes

of our lost brother Charles

so is able to see and understand the Word of G-d

specifically Genesis 9:6

in which you command us

for all to hear and obey

 "Whoever sheds man's blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.

 We pray that Your Holy Spirit

Warm his heart and draw

 him close to know your Word of G-d

Your Son

Y’shua haMashiach

We humbly ask this in the name of Your Holy Son

Jesus the Christ

Amen and amen

 

Praise His Holy Name

 

Your bondslave

chuck

[Blessed Charlemagne]

This is why I don't like Chaput. The opinion of the court was a joke. It was horribly written and concurred with by the usual miscreants, and dissented brilliantly by Scalia, with Thomas and Rhenquist concurring in dissent. O'Connor wrote her own dissent.

Apart from the legality of the decision, Chaput's theology is half-assed.

What a mess. I'm tired of this crap. We are our own worst enemies. It's no wonder we can't accomplish anything.

[LiteKeeper]

The "Most Reverend Chaput" needs to go back and read Genesis 9:6

[verity]

I am a fan of the OLD Testament. ;-)

[jobim]

This is the most frightening Supreme Court decision since Roe v Wade.

The end does not justify the means. Has the otherwise extraordinary archbishop actually read Kennedy's and Scalia's opinions?

1)anti-sovereignty: citing of international law
2)mendacious terminology: calling 1/3 of the states a nationwide consensus
3)anti-Constitutional: 5 judges declare themselves above the jury system (following the Euro model)

[Blessed Charlemagne]

This is the same Archbishop who compared Scalia to Frances Kissling (of Catholic for Free Choice). For whatever reason, he refuses to acknowledge that abortion and Capital Punishment are in no way morally equivalent. It is an absurd theological position, reminiscent of Bernardin's 'seamless garment' nonsense. The state has the right to execute. Always has, always will. The Church cannot change that position. So even if she wants to try to downplay it today, it remains as true today as it was 100 years ago, 1000 years ago, or 5,000 years ago. It is a matter of natural law. The judgment when to apply it is a prudential one and rests with the legitimate authority, namely, the state. One final point, the primary end of punishment is restoration: to restore the disorder caused by the crime. The CCC is confusing because it acknowledges this point, then tries to claim that the only legitimate reason for using capital punishment is for the protection of society. That is to put a lower end above the highest. It doesn't make any sense. Furthermore, Cardinal Ratzinger has made it very clear that there can be a legitimate diversity of opinion on this issue, so one can go along with the Holy Father's personal opinion that the DP should be abolished or exercised only in very rare cases, or one can hold (as I do) the traditional teaching that the judgment is left to the legitimate authority. Such judgments take place on the individual level, and therefore "rare" is a value that does not play into the discussion. Rather, the appropriate term is "just". In other words, we should not say the the application of the DP should be rare, since that would be making a judgment on the frequency of its use without even looking at the individual cases, and instead we should say that the application of the DP should be "just" which is a judgment one can only know by weighing the merits of individual cases. Frequent does not equal unjust. If only the Archbishop understood this.

[sinkspur]

This is the same Archbishop who compared Scalia to Frances Kissling (of Catholic for Free Choice).

Chaput frequently leads with his chin, which is why he steps in it from time to time.

The rest of your post should be reread by everyone. It sums up the Church's position (and mine) perfectly.

[murphE]

Just so you know, Traditional Catholic teaching has always taught the legitimate use of the death penalty:

"Execution Of Criminals

Another kind of lawful slaying belongs to the civil authorities, to whom is entrusted power of life and death, by the legal and judicious exercise of which they punish the guilty and protect the innocent. The just use of this power, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this Commandment which prohibits murder. The end of the Commandment­ is the preservation and security of human life. Now the punishments inflicted by the civil authority, which is the legitimate avenger of crime, naturally tend to this end, since they give security to life by repressing outrage and violence. Hence these words of David: In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land, that I might cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the Lord."

The Catechism of Trent (The Roman Catechism) 1546

SOURCE

The opposition to the death penalty is actually a novel opinion which departs from infallible Church teaching on the issue. To support the legitimate use of the death penalty is quite Catholic, and quite faithful to Magisterial teaching.

[Uri’el-2012]

If God indicated that this was proper punishment for murder, He also indicated that it was proper punishment for adultery.

 

 Then God became man.

 

 Then He walked into the middle of a stoning execution, conducted under the Law given to His People by His prophet, Moses, and He stopped the execution.

 

 Jesus abrogated the Law, and replaced it with a New Covenant. Nobody was justified by the Law. Salvation was given to all by Christ, though only some have chosen to accept Him. Paul had harsh words for those who, after having died to themselves in Christ, nonetheless returned to the Law with its prescripts, even one which Christ Himself fulfilled (circumcision).

8 posted on 03/09/2005 9:57:25 PM MST by seamole (Non occides.)

 

You confuse the Law, which was given to Moses for the Chosen People of G-d

 

And

 

The Laws given to Noah for the whole human race.

 

Please re-read the Torah.

 

Praise His Holy Name

chuck