A Catholic's reflections on capital punishment

[This Vale Of Tears]

It's no mystery that the position of the Catholic Church is strongly unfavorable toward the practice of capital punishment as an end scenario in human criminal justice. My fellow Catholics have often jumped on me because I believe that the way capital punishment is practiced here in America, that is rarely and only for the most egregious offenses, is in line with the Church's teaching on the subject. In fact, the Catechism reads as follows:

2267 Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically non-existent."

Where I take strong issue with some Catholics is this attitude that capital punishment is an intolerable evil. I will argue back quite compellingly that capital punishment is never wrong when a murderer is put to death because it's the carrying out of justice. So when a killer is executed, nothing wrong has occurred. Capital punishment was originally God's idea and it predates even the law of Moses and goes back all the way to the days of Noah when God said if any man sheds blood, his blood shall be shed. It's the very first commandment God gave to men by which to judge wrong doing. It's the very backbone of human criminal justice. By this notion, anyone who acts mercilessly in taking the life of another human being cannot cry foul when precise reciprocity is visited upon him.

But the Catholic Church offers a better way. When mercy is an option, we ought to incline ourselves toward mercy, that a killer may have time to realize the wrong they have committed. Watching an episode of NCIS, I saw a female prisoner who had committed a murder decades ago. She said she killed somebody who had done her no wrong and that she longed for the day of her death so she can tell that person how truly sorry she was. I believe many people are afforded the chance to come to this realization when life in prison is given preference over death. It isn't that people deserve that chance, but rather that we as a society can give them that chance. We live in an age when we have the unprecedented ability to incarcerate people for life in a way that's not cruel and yet achieves the objective of protecting society. So it isn't that the death penalty is wrong, it's that mercy is the better way. I wish more Catholics understood this.

 

[Arnie Manitoba]

Good post vale

Another thing to keep in mind is that in "the old days" it was more expedient to kill the offender (no proper long term jails back then) .... today we have the infrastructure (for Life sentences)

So we house them and feed them till they end up dying of old age ... yet we often ignore the poor and starving in the world and they die much quicker

I am glad I am not a court judge .... and I certainly could never be an executioner.

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

Good post vale

Another thing to keep in mind is that in "the old days" it was more expedient to kill the offender (no proper long term jails back then) .... today we have the infrastructure (for Life sentences)

So we house them and feed them till they end up dying of old age ... yet we often ignore the poor and starving in the world and they die much quicker

I am glad I am not a court judge .... and I certainly could never be an executioner.

I do believe that in lieu of capital punishment, murder should be punished by life in prison without the possibility of parole. I see a glaring injustice when a person serves 10 or 20 years and gets out and their victim is dead forever. I think mandatory life sentences make the punishment fit the crime.

 

[Robertson]

I like this post, thank you!

The Bible clearly teaches capital punishment for a number of crimes, not just murder. Such things as adultery, bestiality, blaspheme, and even a child who grossly disobeys and dishonors their parents were to be put to death. I kind of agree with that last one!

But seriously, in terms of capital punishment for a murder - someone who willingly and purposefully sheds innocent blood - I think putting them to death is a form of mercy. If they ever do repent of such a sin, they need to show that they tried to repair the injury that they caused. But how do you repair a murder? You don't. The closest thing you can do is to give your life and even then it is not fully repaired. Life sentences just wastes tax payer's money and puts a burden on our society. We don't really have the infrastructure for life sentences. Going into debt as a society to feed these creeps is just ridiculous.

The Catholic Church is one of the few churches left that believe in absolutely keeping the commandments of God - none of this "be a good person only" hogwash, so I am surprised that they would not want capital punishment. But, the law of Moses does teach that there had to be plenty of proof and witnesses of the crime. They had to be absolutely sure of the murderer, if not, then it was up to God to figure it out and take justice accordingly.

 

[This Vale Of Tears]

I like this post, thank you!

The Bible clearly teaches capital punishment for a number of crimes, not just murder. Such things as adultery, bestiality, blaspheme, and even a child who grossly disobeys and dishonors their parents were to be put to death. I kind of agree with that last one!


And it's because God himself instituted capital punishment that I cannot impugn it like it's some horrible injustice or an act of social evil.

But seriously, in terms of capital punishment for a murder - someone who willingly and purposefully sheds innocent blood - I think putting them to death is a form of mercy. If they ever do repent of such a sin, they need to show that they tried to repair the injury that they caused. But how do you repair a murder? You don't. The closest thing you can do is to give your life and even then it is not fully repaired. Life sentences just wastes tax payer's money and puts a burden on our society. We don't really have the infrastructure for life sentences. Going into debt as a society to feed these creeps is just ridiculous.

I disagree. We build super max prisons that can keep society safe from the most dangerous criminals for a small fraction of what it costs for our endless wars, lavish social programs. But let me jump quickly to where I agree with you. Murder is something that cannot be repaired. I rather appreciate the Mormon teaching that murder is unforgivable or at least very difficult to overcome in the eyes of God. I certainly like it better than the cheap, easy forgive-ism that equates murder to any other sin that's quickly done away with. St. Paul considered himself forever indebted to the church he served because of the murders he commissioned. He approached a debt he couldn't possibly repay as a challenge, not an excuse to throw up his hands and say "well I'm forgiven anyway."

But there's something else I want to touch upon and that's how infrequent the death penalty is in America. It's infrequent because the crime has to be truly heinous to convince a jury of 12 that somebody deserves to die. I think that's the only thing that keeps the death penalty sane in our country is having that check on it. So instead of a law that perfunctorily consigns people to death, the death penalty is instead an expression of 12 human beings who are truly seeking out justice on a case by case basis.


The Catholic Church is one of the few churches left that believe in absolutely keeping the commandments of God - none of this "be a good person only" hogwash, so I am surprised that they would not want capital punishment. But, the law of Moses does teach that there had to be plenty of proof and witnesses of the crime. They had to be absolutely sure of the murderer, if not, then it was up to God to figure it out and take justice accordingly.


And this is where I diverge with many Catholics who don't quite understand the teaching of the Church on this issue. The Catholic Church doesn't condemn the death penalty, it instead urges governments to mercy instead. But this goes to the fundamentalist view of the Bible that presumes that there have been no changes from the Old to the New Covenant. The error of the Seventh Day Adventists, for example is to tell everyone they're worshipping on the wrong day "because it says so right here in the Bible". The don't understand that the newly commissioned Christian church changed that day to Sunday by the authority directly invested in them by Jesus Christ. How can one read the entire book of Hebrews and not understand that the Old Covenant has been superseded by the New because the New is superior to the Old? Therefore we can't treat the statutes of the Old Covenant as equal to those of the New and bind ourselves to obsolete dictates.

Applied to the death penalty, God having instituted it for certain offenses that you cited doesn't mean that we are obligated to continue those same practices in the age of grace; as if human criminal justice in its infancy has not evolved from then to now. So you'll never hear me upbraid my Protestant brethren for supporting the death penalty because the death penalty isn't wrong. Instead I'll urge them to seek out the better solution by which a person can in this lifetime come to terms with the wrong they visited on another human being.

 

[horsecamp]

every day our Young men of the united states militaty have to play exacutioner or be executed By their enamies.

i would imagine you eather learn to accept that this earth is not a place of Goodness and your doing what you can to

to stop at least some evil from happening to civilians your trying to help; or your going to have severe mental when you get out.

I would imagine it would be the same for a executioner in our prision sysystems..

 

[Eltanin]

I am in full agreement VoT. I think there is a necessary place for capital punishment in our society, but we should lean towards mercy when possible, which is most cases.

Yet, sometimes I wonder if the punishment system itself is too merciful. People are not scared of consequences anymore. People commit crimes knowing that they will get a roof over their heads, food, and in some places, the rehabilitation includes college degrees, and work experience... I know a man who made sure he would get a 6-10 year prison sentence after he lost everything of the little bit he had, just so he could get out to a new start... Yet most people who go through our system rely on a good lawyer who will get them reduced sentences if not completely off. I suppose this would be more of a failing with our judicial system, though.

Either way, I am just glad I am not in the position of a judge.