Does the Catholic Church Accept the Death Penalty?
Yes, she does. This will come as a surprise to many of you as you have been catechized in the fashionable opinion, even inserted by Pope Francis into the Catholic Catechism, that it is "no longer admissible." This will take some explaining.
Church Teaching on the Use of Lethal Force by the State
For centuries, the Catholic teaching is that the State may and must use lethal force, when necessary, in war, police work or capital punishment, to protect the innocent, the common good, the peace and justice of society. The killing of a human being, by the state, when it is reasonable, required, protective and proportionate, is not an evil act. It is a just act. It is protective of life against evil actors. The Catholic Church is not and never will be pacifist. On the contrary, we honor our police and military who are willing to give their own lives, and yes take the lives of aggressors, to protect our community.
Scenario: a sniper is on the roof of a building overlooking a schoolyard in which several hundred children are gathered. With his automatic rifle, he is shooting the innocents and will be able to kill all of them within a few minutes, before they can escape. A squat team member is positioned and directed to shoot the sniper. He does so. What he did was not violence understood as the violation of a person and his good. What he did was a just act, a proper use of lethal force, under obedience to an authoritative order of the state, to protect several hundred innocent children and the community.
Intrinsically Evil Acts vs. Prudential Judgement Acts
A bedrock foundation of Catholic ethics is that certain actions are always and everywhere, intrinsically evil and can never be done...NEVER! Such actions, whatever the subjective intention or the circumstances or the consequences, cannot be done because they are in themselves inherently evil. Such include: deliberate killing of the innocent, torture, abortion, adultery, pedophilia, and sexual engagement outside of marriage.
By contrast, other actions are not intrinsically evil but may be so because of the intention, circumstances or consequences. For example, lying is not absolutely wrong: the German in 1943, hiding a Jewish family in the attic, lies to the Gestapo that there is no one there. That is a good act. The father whose family is starving steals a loaf of bread from his neighbor who has so much that he discards hundreds of loaves daily. That is a good act. To kill someone in self-defense or to protect the family is a just act.
Such actions demand a prudential decision, a calculation of the risks and consequences of the alternatives, such as restrain or use of force. Often such deliberations occur in confusion, complexity and uncertainty. In such areas no one is infallible, least of all the clergy. We do our best. Later we may realize that we made a mistake of judgement. But if there was no evil intent, but an honest error of the intellect rather than bad will, there is no sin.
In public policy and politics, most areas involve prudential judgements about which Catholics of high intelligence and good will differ. In Ukraine, should we withhold arms to provoke a peace conference? or keep our current path of aid? or give even more help to the Ukrainians including jets and even advisors or troops on the ground? There is no clear, Catholic or revealed answer to this. Other similar prudential judgments include: border policy, health care, taxation, guns, climate and regulations and rules of all sorts.
But some political practices are inherently evil: legalized abortion, the atom bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, Putin's invasion of the Ukraine, the genocide in Rwanda.
Capital punishment is not inherently evil. Therefore, it is a prudential judgment: if not necessary to protect life and order, it obviously should not be used. This is a judgement about which we Catholics can disagree; not so with genocide and abortion. There is no moral equivalence between abortion and the death penalty.
Competence of the Pope, Bishops and Magisterium
As Catholic we believe that the Holy Spirit guides us, reliably, through our Pope and Bishops in matters of faith and morals. By "morals" of course we mean the principles of right and wrong and about intrinsic evils, but not the practicalities of prudential judgements. Outside of that area, they have no authority or competence, for example, in determining: tax plans, border policy, warfare, climate measures, the death penalty and such.
On such prudential matters, the pope and bishops, like everyone else, have a right to their own opinion and to voicing it. We do well to listen to them, not in filial obedience, but with an open but not uncritical mind. First of all they do have good moral principles, the very best. They are generally intelligent and informed. They often, especially the pope, transcend narrow national or ideological prejudices and have concern for a "catholic" or wide range of populations. But they have no real expertise. As a matter of fact, in areas of culture and politics the laity are more expert and responsible. Our elected officials and their informed advisors are really competent about and responsible for these.
So if the pope or a bishop or conference of bishops voice an opinion on a prudential matter, we listen to it, critically. They have no special authority or competence. Like the rest of us, they have their own confusions, prejudices and blindness.
There is a "clericalist" temptation for such clergy to invest their practical opinions with an aura of authority or certainty. The Church has a long, unhappy history of involvement in politics, often "consecrating" a particular polity. For centuries the Catholic Church was wedded, adulterously, to the status quo powers-powers-that-be in Latin American, Spain, Italy and other countries. Where we live, blue-state NJ, it is more common to hear a priest in the pulpit advocating a liberal view and cloaking it in the sanctity of the Church. This is a big mistake! Our pastor in Jersey City, a personal friend, would relentlessly preach against warfare and the military every July 4 and Memorial Day. My military son found it necessary to attend mass in another parish so offensive was this sanctimonious progressivism. Such is a creeping clericalism whereby the hierarchy assumes an authority where they have none.
Unfortunately, Pope Francis himself has this tendency. He is cavalier or even derogatory about dogma and morals, in which he is ordained with authority, but enamored of his own prudential views about immigration, death penalty and related issues. So he has presented himself as chaplain to a cosmopolitan, Western, liberal vision of society in opposition to populist, nationalist movements of Trump and others. He so doing he dilutes and ignores his real responsibility to teach on faith and morals and polarizes the Church rather than unifying those with different policy viewpoints.
Unfortunately, his decision to change the wording of the Catholic Catechism to declare unconditionally that capital punishment is "no longer admissible" is just such an overreach. He did not change Catholic teaching; he cannot do so, even as Pope. What he actually declared was his practical evaluation that it is no longer required in our world.
The first thing to notice is that this is a practical, policy decision about which he has no unusual competence. I myself have been in American prisons perhaps 15 to 20 times in my adult life, visiting friends or in prayer ministry. I have read about our prisons over the years. I am confident I, a layman, know more about American prisons than our Holy Father. I know that they are rife with violence: rape, gang activity, organized crime. The determination that our prisons are adequate for the protection of our society is a problematic one to be sure.
The second thing to notice is the unconditional, absolute wording: "is no longer admissible." He speaks an absolute that presumes to apply everywhere and forever. This is a brazen overreach.
Competence of the Laity
Clearly than, the prudential judgment about capital punishment is the expertise of the laity, not the hierarchy. It is the specific responsibility of our elected officials, our professionals (prison, law enforcement, prosecutors, scholars of criminal law, etc.) and broadly of us the concerned, informed laity. As a Catholic, you are responsible to educate yourself and make an informed decision about the necessity of the death penalty.
In the next essay, #2, we will consider criteria to make this judgement.
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