Pope Leo: Support for Death Penalty Is Not Pro-Life – “‘Someone who says I’m against abortion but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life,’ the pope explained.” Pope Leo XIV Wades Into Durbin Debate (National Catholic Register)
England Says “Goodbye” to the West? – “Defying both modern science and the traditions of western civilization, the NHS England’s Genomics Education Programme seemed to endorse incest, saying first-cousin marriage is linked to ‘stronger extended family support systems and economic advantages.'” Britain Is Turning Its Back On Western Civilization (The Federalist)
Feminist Atheist Turned Catholic – “Leah Libresco Sargeant recently spoke with OSV News’ Charles Camosy about society’s treatment of women, the reality of women’s needs and the importance of recognizing the ways in which we are dependent on each other.” Leah Libresco Sargeant on her new look at femininity in ‘The Dignity of Dependence’ (Our Sunday Visitor)
Stories Matter – “Catholic content in film has stepped up its game with real production value, strong storytelling, and movies or series that could hold their own next to anything in your streaming services.”
Mifepristone – “The Trump administration is officially reviewing the safety of abortion drug mifepristone after pressure from Republican lawmakers.” FDA Officially Begins Review of Abortion Pill Safety (National Review)
No Real Justice – “Bishop Gustavo Óscar Zanchetta was released on parole by an Argentinian court on Friday after serving only part of his four and a half year sentence for aggravated sexual abuse of two seminarians.” Bishop Zanchetta released on parole (The Pillar)
AI Lacks Substance – “Despite a surge in generative AI use across workplaces, most companies are seeing little measurable ROI.” AI-Generated “Workslop” Is Destroying Productivity (Harvard Business Review)
Left-Wing Programs in Poland – “The less a person knows the history of his own people, the less rooted he is in national and European culture, the less he understands the world around him and the easier it is to govern him.” “This reform is about eliminating the education that teaches pride in being Polish”—Pedagogue and Theologian (The European Conservative)
A Wave of Joy – Doctor calls Sophia Forchas’ survival a ‘miracle’ as she continues to recover from the Annunciation Catholic school shooting. Miracle Recovery: Prayers Credited for Annunciation Shooting Survivor Sophia Forchas (National Catholic Register)
Faith, Not Ideology – “With the partisan polarization in the United States reaching a fever pitch, it is time to remind ourselves of the fundamentals of Catholic social doctrine again … ” Beyond Left and Right: 7 Key Catholic Political Principles (Benedictine College Media & Culture)
Cutting LGBT Initiatives – “Tampa and Ft. Myers won’t be holding their yearly LGBT ‘Pride’ events this year due to lack of donor funding, reflecting a national trend of declining corporate support for the celebration of perversion.” Major Florida cities cancel LGBT ‘Pride’ events due to loss of sponsor dollars (Lifesite News)
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Re #1 Pope Leo: Support for Death Penalty Is Not Pro-Life.
Not Leo’s finest outing.
See Phil Lawler at Catholic Culture.
Yet another politician posing as a cleric. Here we go again….Bergoglio Part II.
I agree with the Pope.
There could possibly be a reason for the death penalty in a less developed country without modern correctional facilities & no other way to protect society from a dangerous killer. But that would hardly ever apply elsewhere.
If we distrust the state to educate our children, run fair elections, or use our tax dollars wisely, why would we trust it with the power of life & death?
I’ve served on a jury & I know that the difference between a life sentence & the death penalty can be the defendant’s ability to afford decent legal representation. That’s not justice.
I’m not naive about crime or the kinds of criminals who receive life sentences. There are real sociopaths serving life that should never, ever be let loose to prey on society again. And if we do not support capital punishment it’s on us to lobby for real life sentences. Not early release or parole.
Sorry, but the Scriptures disagree with you. The death penalty is about justice. It is an appropriate punishment in a society founded on the rule of law.
It’s not about necessity today and justice in sentencing shouldn’t depend upon a defendant’s financial situation.
If you recognize that a prohibition against the death penalty is not an absolute, quite correctly, then you are not anti-death penalty. Human weakness and the fallibility of administering perfect justice is not relevant to the question.
mrscracker: The problem occurs when bishops confuse issues of grave import. Abortion as a grave evil needs to be discussed on its own and not in reference to capital punishment
That said, abortion takes the life of an INNOCENT and defenseless person. Capital punishment takes the life of a GUILTY person – guilty of taking the life of another. These acts should never be conflated.
Absolutely Deacon Edward. There’s a great difference between an innocent child and a convicted offender. Killing a child in its mother’s womb additionally deprives it from receiving Baptism.
Re #12 Cutting LGBT Initiatives.
Has “Pride” peaked?
@ Faith not Ideology
The author includes into Catholic Social Teaching the inborn and universal Natural Law. About which, in the encyclical Veritatis Splendor (1993)–more than a photo op or glib media interview (!)–St. John Paul II explicitly [!] includes the Natural Law… “for the first time” within the Magisterium of the Church (n. 115), explaining further “The Church is no way the author or the arbiter of this [‘moral’] norm” (n. 95).
For the benefit of future discussion groups (aka a Synod on Synodality, and post-synodal Study Group #9 on a few of the “hot button issues”?), he exposes the three fallacies of: the Fundamental Option (instead, individual actions are still subject to moral judgment; no once-saved-always-saved), Proportionalism (bundling bad actions/ apples with others to arrive at an exonerating package deal), and Consequentialism (violating the biblical principle that we cannot do evil if some good might come of it, Romans—3:8).
Two further points:
FIRST, about the “inborn” part, St. Irenaeus said it this way: “From the beginning, God had implanted in the heart of man the precepts of the natural law. Then he was content to remind him of them. This was the Decalogue.”
SECOND, about the “universal” part, and for all of its nuance about misconstrued “freedom of conscience [from coercion],” the Second Vatican Council still grounded itself in truth: “Contemplating this melancholy state of humanity, the Council wishes to recall first of all the permanent binding force of ‘universal natural law’ and its all-embracing principles. Man’s conscience itself gives ever more emphatic voice to these principles [….],” (Gaudium et Spes, n. 79).
No one can accuse Pope Leo XIV, unlike Pope Francis, of being clueless about the American situation.
He is directly addressing the narrow and often erroneous focus of many American pro-lifers who oppose abortion but ignore the broader demands of a consistent ethic of life. In doing so, they reduce the “pro-life” stance to a single issue, becoming merely “pro-birth” or, at best, “anti-abortion” voters. But Scripture and Catholic Social Teaching are clear: to be truly pro-life means defending all human life, born and unborn, from conception to natural death, from womb to tomb.
This calls for advocacy and action, not only for the unborn, but also for all the “un-s”: the unhoused, unwelcomed (undocumented immigrants), unwell, unfed, unclothed, unprotected, and even the undead (those on death row.). As Matthew 25 powerfully reminds us, these are the people closest to Jesus: the lost, the least, and the last.
And when Catholics vote in ways that ignore or dismiss these lives, focusing only on abortion while neglecting the rest, they are not voting in alignment with the full teaching of the Church. A truly Catholic vote must reflect the dignity of every human person, at every stage and in every condition.
Continuing to cut and paste the exact same points every time this topic comes up is getting old and undermines what little credibility your arguments have. What you are describing is socialism, not Christianity.
For the record, yes, St. John Paul II remarked that the USE of capital punishment should be “very rare, if not practically non-existent” (“The Gospel of Life,” 1995, n. 56). Largely a segue to his greater point in the next paragraph! Likely intended for a European Union audience where the death penalty is already prohibited as a condition for EU membership. Wrote the pope:
“If such great care must be taken to respect every life, even that of criminals and unjust aggressors, the commandment ‘You shall not kill’ has absolute value [!] when it refers to the INNOCENT PERSON [italics]. And all the more so in the case of weak and defenseless human beings, who find their ultimate defense against the arrogance and caprice of others in the absolute binding force of God’s commandment” (n. 57).
QUESTION: Does the new and ambivalent word “inadmissible” merely tighten this prudential judgment? When asked about “The Gospel of Life,” Cardinals Ratzinger and Dulles clarified, thusly:
RATZINGER: “Clearly the Holy Father has not altered the doctrinal principles…but has simply deepened (their) application…in the context of present-day historical circumstances” (National Review, July 10, 1995, p. 14; First Things, Oct. 1995, 83). In a July 2004 letter to the luminary and former-cardinal McCarrick—a letter intended for all of the bishops but which came to light only when later leaked to the press—he wrote: “Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia….There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”
DULLES concluded that traditional teachings on “retributive justice” and “vindication of the moral order” are not reversed by John Paul II’s strong “prudential judgment” about effective crime prevention. He simply remained silent on these teachings. (“Seven Reasons America Shouldn’t Execute”, National Catholic Register, 3-24-02).
QUESTION: Why does the mud-wrestling term “inadmissible” feel so much like the admissible (say what?) “spontaneous, informal, non-liturgical” blessings (!) of “irregular couples [as couples]”—in the widely rejected “Fiducia Supplicans”?
Were you not so giftedly clairvoyant, one might conclude that thou art violating the Eighth Commandment by guessing—on public forum—at how others might actually think, as with a “narrow and often erroneous focus.” But who am I to judge?
Sorry, dear DD, this is another half-baked, Marxist-leaning diatribe. Maybe even hypocritical, when we think of the thousands in China & Russia who are subject to capital punishment – often, it seems, because they have healthy organs suitable for transplantation to ailing communist hierarchs.
If you would only read your ‘Catechism of the Catholic Church’, the official position of The Church is made crystal clear in #2267, on page 546.
Saints John Paul II & Benedict XVI give us eminently sensible ‘good oil’.
There’s surely no space left for rancid rants by church officials . . .
Ever in the grace & mercy of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Deacon Dom, I agree that all human life is sacred, even the very sorriest of lives in our correctional facilities.
But Catholics can have legitimate differences on matters of prudential judgment. Immigration, housing the mentally unwell and homeless, etc
I believe the death penalty falls into another category but I do think there might be exceptions in less developed nations. In our developed world it really can’t be supported as a means to protect society.
Deacon Dom: Why do you flat out lie about what others “focus on?”
And how do you contrive a means to conceive of a moral imperative as “an issue?” Morality is not political. I don’t recall you personally interviewing me to know what this pro-lifer thinks, nor any of the hundreds I have known personally who have dedicated their lives to helping women and the unborn and the long born.
With all the massive spiritual, emotional, and material aid personally provided by millions of pro-lifers to women in crisis pregnancies, how do you draw the conclusion that this does not even exist? Do you desire to believe that it does not exist? How is this helpful? Does your pretend reality enable you to feel better about yourself? Do you really fail to consider the meaning of not giving resistance to the talking points of anti-Christian bigots? Or are you too “focused” on spreading their falsehoods?
@ A Wave of Joy
We’re in a moment in Church history when faith, and the immense effect of prayer are lost in a world of increasing skepticism. Sophia’s miracle recovery may well be the effect of the love of many for this young, beautiful, innocent girl touching Christ’s sacred heart. A heart brimming with love few of us take advantage of to literally mine the infinite treasure.
God’s love works in mysterious ways one of which is confidence, and convinced faith that his love is beyond the depth of our intellect. The greater our faith in his love the more assuredly he will respond, simply because our belief in someone’s goodness is itself an act of love.
This confidence at a time when justice is markedly abandoned in both cities that of Man and that of God, his Church. Too many clerics are diminishing their humanness in a secularized imitation of divine love, in effect a self serving sensuality that accommodates rather than converts to Christ.
So heartening that a learned cleric (Fr Dr Peter Morello) is willing to reflect on the current delinquency of so many of our clergy.
Clergy who we deeply desire to be able to honor & respect as our peers in loving & following King Jesus Christ with undivided heart.
” in effect a self serving sensuality that accommodates TO THE SATANIC SPIRIT OF THIS WORLD rather than converts to Christ.”
Will they listen? Have they any idea where their souls are heading . . ?
Surely there must be other Christ-following clergy out there.
Can we PLEASE hear from you. Millions are longing to know of your faith.
A one time supporter of the death penalty however, if you are pro-life you cannot in good conscience by for its implementation. As for “illegal immigrants” the question must be, to what extent does one “support” illegal immigrants? Those who have and are committing crimes, what is the “pro-life” aspect of that, to remove them, imprison them if convicted in order to save the lives of others. As for those not committing or having committed crimes (other than being in a county illegally) what is the pro-life message? It should be compassion, empathy but not necessarily opening borders, promoting further illegal actions or supporting them while financially, etc. while that action harming those citizens already in need. The Pope IMO needs to consider his words or we will be back to the word salad confusion of Pope Francis that was so often a problem for Catholics.
“Someone who says I’m against abortion but is in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life,’ the pope explained.”
Sorry, Leo. Only a moral imbecile sees no qualitative difference between destroying life because it’s inconvenient and taking life as the result of a formal judicial process in the interests of justice.
Right-on, dear ‘Athanasius’.
Truth-bending, popularity-seeking, Catholicism-discombobulating.
This comment of Leo’s is terribly disappointing.
What does the death penalty meted out to 20 or so killers each year all of whom have received court trials have to do with the killing of more than a million innocent babies each year for the past fifty years?
This was a chance for Leo to make clear this most basic Catholic teaching on abortion. But instead he blathered on about a peripheral issue at best.
He failed utterly.
The death penalty is rendered and administered by the state….it is a type of legal rectificatory justice—it aims to protect the good of the community as well as hold the criminal accountable. Another purpose is to deter or inhibit others from engaging in similar type crimes.
One individual chooses to end the life of another through abortion. The mother does not consider the common good of humankind. She further deprives an innocent vulnerable tiny victim of life; in the process she destroys her own internal integrity. The ‘helping’ or ‘healing’ ‘professional’ engaging in abortion or euthanasia subverts the profession in addition to his personal integrity. This hurts the common good.
Briney is correct. Leo blathered and we are bothered. We had hoped for a higher standard, an enriched intellect, and more virtue than we have seen lately. What a major disappointment.
Jesus, during His agony on the Cross, made it completely clear about His eternal stance regarding capital punishment and its potential outcome for the executionee:
Gestas (the “bad” criminal) had mocked Jesus by demanding, if He was truly God, that He come down off the cross and save the two criminals as well.
Jesus: no comment
Dismas: “Have you fear of God, since we are under the same sentence?
Jesus: no comment
Dismas to Jesus: please remember me when you come into your kingdom.
Jesus: “This day, you will be with Me in Paradise”
This poor fool’s analysis –
1) Jesus did not counter Dismas when he said that they were all under the same sentence. That implies that capital punishment, even in the eye’s of God, can be just.
2) A just sentence of death for the two criminals was given by a lawful authority which God acknowledged.
3) Had said lawful authority selected an alternative option than execution, such a sentence would, by Dismas’ own admission, been a long and severe punishment. Most such prisoners died in either incarceration or slavery.
4) Jesus told Dismas that he would be with God in paradise – that very day!
Conclusion: a death sentence, when it concerns a properly disposed soul, wipes all of the sins of the executee, allowing such a soul to bypass purgatory altogether.
As I see it, abortion destroys unborn, innocent life. Capital punishment is execution of the guilty to protect innocents born or unborn. Mistakes are made; we are human, after all. But I believe the concept valid and the practice necessary, the current Pope notwithstanding.