| The death penalty or
capital punishment is defined as “the execution of a convicted criminal by the State for crimes known as capital offenses.”
The Catechism of the Catholic Church talks about capital punishment in paragraph #2267 as follows:
“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 are 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 non-existent."
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a pastoral statement calling for the end to the use of the death penalty.
A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death gives concrete ways to fight for a culture of life through actively working to end capital punishment.
The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve
the Gospel of life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken
away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively
denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty,
which is both cruel and unnecessary.
--Pope John Paul II, January 27, 1999, St. Louis, Missouri
For additional reading/websites on the subject go to:
Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty
Justice, Mercy and Capital Punishment by Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.
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