Catholic Principles
Over the last 20 years the American Bishops have grappled with the problem of capital punishment. In 1980, the U.S. Bishops, in a statement on capital punishment, reviewed the four usual arguments justifying the death penalty: retribution, deterrence, reform and protection. The last argument: protection is the one that Catholic thought has seen as the justifying reason for capital punishment. We find the emblematic statement of Thomas Aquinas in the "Summa Theologica": "If a man is a danger to the community, threatening it with disintegration by some wrongdoing of his, then his execution for the healing and preservation of the common good is to be commended." Because our modern Western societies have the resources and means to separate criminals and isolate them from society without having recourse to the extreme of capital punishment, the Church opposes capital punishment. Capital punishment can be moral only when it is necessary for public safety. It is no longer necessary and therefore must be abolished.
It is understandable that when a terrible crime is committed there is a reaction from the public charged with emotion. We all instinctively identify with the grief of the victims' families. Everyone knows that no one is exempt from the possibility of a violent attack on one's own person or on a loved one. The senseless violence and brutal violation of innocent victims instinctively repulses us. There is an outcry demanding redress. Our laws, however, need to be debated in an atmosphere of serenity and with a commitment to promote public morality. Decisions made at a time of great grief or anger are seldom rational and lead to disastrous consequences. It is ill advised for public figures to try to engage the legislators in votes on capital punishment as a cathartic response to a recent tragedy. Violence should not be our response to violence.
Justice is not revenge. Killing murderers does not deter murders, but, rather, promotes an attitude that life is cheap and that when we have the power it is all right to kill. Much has been said about violence on television, in the movies, and in the lyrics of modern music. Our people are being desensitized, not unlike the ancient Romans finding entertainment in watching gladiators kill one another or applauding as Christians were thrown to wild beasts. State-sponsored violence will not promote a new respect for life but only serve to erode reverence for life even more.
Recent Papal Teachings
The Holy Father has spoken out against capital punishment three times in the last month: in his Christmas message, "Urbi et Orbi," again during his public statements during his visit to Mexico, and most recently during his pastoral visit to St. Louis. Although the first edition of the "Catechism of the Catholic Church" allows for the death penalty only in highly restricted circumstances, in his Encyclical "Evangelium Vitae" Pope John Paul II went even further, stating that such extreme cases were very rare indeed, if they existed at all. The Pope puts the responsibility of proof on the government to demonstrate that there is no viable alternative to the death penalty. That affirmation forced a clarification in subsequent editions of the "Catechism." Now the Pope is calling for an abolition of the death penalty. As he said in St. Louis: "The death penalty is cruel and unnecessary." In response to the Holy Father's request, the Governor of Missouri graciously commuted the sentence of a man on death row. The reality, however, is that the death sentence is on the increase. Since 1976, there have been approximately 500 executions, with 68 carried out in 1998 alone.
[Part three of a four part series]
