Pope Francis changes the Catechism on the death penalty -- but will people listen?

Pope Francis has made a change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Catechism number 2267 will now be changed to clarify that the death penalty is wrong in all cases. 

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The death penalty is fading from use -- for now.

Highlights

By Marshall Connolly (Catholic Online)
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
8/2/2018 (5 years ago)

Published in Living Faith

Keywords: Pope Francis Catechism, death penalty

LOS ANGELES, CA (California Network) - Most Catholics believe the Chruch is opposed to the death penalty in all cases, but this hasn't been the case -- until now. 

Until now, the Church has permitted the death penalty as an extreme last resort, when there has been no other possible way to protect the common good. Of course, in the modern world alternatives exist in abundance, such as life imprisonment. The existence of alternatives has functionally meant the Church would always be opposed to the death penalty. However, under the old Catechism, the acceptable use of the death penalty has been theoretically possible. Now, the change means it is not acceptable, ever. 

The Church itself has used the death penalty. In medieval times, and up until the modern era, heretics and other criminals could be put to death. However, even in these times, the Church itself rarely carried out such punishments, preferring instead to leave such details to civil authorities. Historically, the Church has also made it easy for a person to escape such a penalty, merely by confessing or recanting a heretical position. Typically, only the most recalcitrant sinners faced death. 

The Catechism states the following, which allows the death penalty under the rarest circumstances: 

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 to 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 nonexistent."68

This teaching will now be updated to reflect Pope Francis' teaching that the death penalty will never be acceptable. The Pope explained his decision by saying the death penalty is "inadmissible" because it "attacks" the inherent dignity of the human person. 

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The revised text will now add this line: "Consequently the church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person," and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide."