Should We Agree with the Pope about the Death Penalty?

Dear Catholic Exchange,

Thank you,

Martha Chambers

Dear Martha,

Peace in Christ! One must understand, with regard to capital punishment, what the pope is teaching and what he is not. Some mistakenly believe the pope has “changed” the Church’s teaching on the death penalty. This is incorrect. Even in his pleas for the death penalty to be abolished, he has maintained the teaching that the state does have recourse to the death penalty. Just because the state “may” use the death penalty, however, doesn’t mean it always “should” use it. The power the state has to use the death penalty does not give the state a blank check to use this power arbitrarily at will, without consideration of larger moral principles and circumstances of the day.

Further, while Catholics should properly understand the Church’s teaching on the right of the state to have recourse to the death penalty, at no time has the Church required Catholics to support the death penalty. The fundamental issues are primarily, just punishments for crimes, and secondarily, the protection of the social order. Catholics have always been free to call for means other than the death penalty to achieve these fundamental ends. In light of the Holy Father’s teaching, Catholics should join with him in calling for the death penalty to be abolished—not because it is intrinsically evil, but in our own times, it may be immoral to make use of it. If other and better means of dealing with offenders is available, it is immoral for the state to use the death penalty even though the state has the authority to impose it. One should not confuse the authority of the state to use the death penalty as being an absolute right that can be exercised unhindered and unanswered for. Almost any right has limiting principles in its exercise. A person or a society has no “right” to exercise a right unjustly or without regard to how it relates and is integrated with other moral principles.

What our beloved Holy Father has done in Evangelium Vitae and elsewhere is not only to teach regarding the death penalty, but also to place the issue of the death penalty in the larger spectrum of life issues while applying the timeless principles of the Gospel to our own time. If a Catholic publicly disagrees with the pope about the death penalty, that is an indication that he neither understands what the pope is teaching, nor sees the larger picture the pope sees. To be sure, a call for an end to the death penalty and its relation to other life issues represents a development of timeless teaching. Even more so, it represents an application of the Gospel to present day circumstances. Many are still working and thinking through this issue, no doubt. Catholics, however, should give their assent to the Holy Father on this issue, recognizing that while he is not changing teaching or teaching anything new, he is applying Church teaching concerning faith and morals. Further, the pope is not just making a “prudential judgment” about how to use the death penalty, but connecting it directly to the Gospel of Life. If one is to speak about a moral use of the death penalty, the pope is saying that a moral use is “rare to non-existent” in our day. Thus, it should be abolished. Catholics should assent to the pope and raise with him one voice on this issue.

For a clear presentation on the Church’s teaching on Capital Punishment, see our FAITH FACT on the subject.

I hope this answers your question. If you have further questions on this or would like more information about Catholics United for the Faith, please contact us at 1-800-MY-FAITH (693-2484). Please keep us in your prayers as we endeavor to “support, defend, and advance the efforts of the teaching Church.”

United in the Faith,

David E. Utsler

Information Specialist

Catholics United for the Faith

827 North Fourth Street

Steubenville, OH 43952

800-MY-FAITH (800-693-2484)