CONFUSED? ME TOO!

When I was still active in Priestly ministry, I recall a dear colleague remarking:  “A good day in the parish is when there are no letters from the chancery office.”

Well, paraphrasing my friend:  “A good day for the Church is when we don’t hear of news coming from Rome.”

Recently, the Vatican announced that the Catechism of the Catholic Church would be changed to declare the death penalty “inadmissible” given the “inviolability and dignity of the person” as understood “in the light of the Gospel.”

That announcement was shocking in and of itself, to be sure.

But then came news that Cardinal Ladaria, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, had written to explain that the revision of Paragraph 2267 of the Catechism “expresses an authentic development of doctrine that is not in contradiction with the prior teachings of the Magisterium".

The Cardinal went on to state that “these teachings, in fact, can be explained in the light of the primary responsibility of the public authority to protect the common good in a social context in which the penal sanctions were understood differently, and had developed in an environment in which it was more difficult to guarantee that the criminal could not repeat the crime".

Both the revision to the Catechism and the commentary of Cardinal Ladaria leave me more than a bit puzzled.  

You too?

And so, I thought I would do some research and then offer some commentary.

The key part of the new formulation in the Catechism is this: “The death penalty is inadmissible because it attacks the inviolability and the dignity of the person.” 

The obvious reading of the words can mean nothing other than the death penalty is wrong in and of itself (intrinsically) because it offends human dignity.

To suggest, as Cardinal Ladaria pitifully attempts to do, that such a statement is in harmony with the centuries old Magisterium is nothing short of theological and historical fraud, isn’t it!

Why do I say this?  

Well, let’ just look at several of the dozens of extent sources which indicate clearly that the Magisterium consistently has upheld the right to impose the death penalty upon those found guilty of certain capital offenses.

First, let’s examine the clear teaching of the Scriptures.

Saint Paul (Romans 13), in keeping with the unanimous teaching of the Early Fathers of the Church, gives testimony to the moral righteousness of the death penalty as just punishment for certain crimes.

Saint Augustine (The City of God, Book One) echoes that apostolic teaching.

A further examination of the topic reveals that the Catechism of the Council of Trent, promulgated by Pope Pius V, and compiled and edited by Saint Charles Borromeo, affirms and decrees that the death penalty is not only permissable but is, in certain cases, mandated by the seriousness of the crime committed.

The Angelic Doctor, Saint Thomas Aquinas teaches that the death penalty can, in some cases, carry with it the remission of the temporal punishment the criminal has incurred for the moral heinousness of his crime.

Then, we find the remarkable document which would give every indication that the Church’s teaching regarding the death penalty appears to be infallible teaching.  

I refer, of course, to the Pope Leo X’s condemnation of the errors proffered by Martin Luther.  Among those errors,  the Pope in Exsurge Domine, n. 33, rebukes Luther’s claim that the burning of heretics is against the will of the Holy Spirit.  

The Pope goes on to offer perhaps the clearest and most convincing argument justifying the death penalty as a right of not only of the state, but that of the Church as well, for the protection of society and the integrity of the Faith.

I (and others more astute) suggest that Pope Leo X’s condemnation of Luther’s error bears all the criteria which later would be cited by Vatican Council I as the form which an infallible proclamation must exhibit:  “By the authority of almighty God, the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and our own authority, we condemn, reprobate, and reject completely each of these theses or errors as either heretical, scandalous, false, offensive to pious ears or seductive of simple minds, and against Catholic truth. By listing them, we decree and declare that all the faithful of both sexes must regard them as condemned, reprobated, and rejected.”

“...condemned, reprobated and rejected....”  Seems to be little wriggle room for disagreement or contradiction, does it not?

Is Cardinal Ladaria unaware of the massive testimony of the Scriptures and the Magisterium regarding not only the legitmacy but the moral imperative to impose the death penalty in certain cases?

How in the world then can either Pope Francis or the Prefect of the Roman dicastery charged with overseeing and protecting the Deposit of the Faith possibly suggest that the latest revision of the Catechism contains teaching which is in harmony with past Magisterial pronouncements?

Even the weak-kneed reference which Cardinal Ladaria makes to Pope Saint John Paul II’s pleading that the death penalty be imposed in the most rare of circumstances is not convincing.

Clearly, Pope Saint John Paul II did not condemn the death penalty as an intrinsic evil but offered a cogent argument and gave very reluctant consent to it only “when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society.” 

Cardinal Ladaria suggests traditional Church teaching, including the nuanced position of Pope Saint John Paul II, and Pope Francis on the death penalty are in accord.

But to honestly affirm that requires an admission that previous Church teaching allowed the death penalty in historical circumstances in which all criminals executed were continuing threats to society because of inadequate prison security. 

Such a position is patently absurd.

And so, I am confused.

There has always been disagreement among Catholics about whether capital punishment is, in practice, the morally best way to uphold justice and social order. 

However, the Church has always taught, clearly and consistently, that the death penalty is in principle consistent with both natural law and the Gospel. 

That was until just the other day!