General
The death penalty debate and the Church’s magisterium
I regard the liceity of the death penalty as having been established with infallible certitude by the Church’s ordinary magisterium. […]
Joseph Bessette
Features
Hot Air vs. Capital Punishment: A Reply to Paul Griffiths and David Bentley Hart
Griffiths’ review in First Things of By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed is rich in condescension, high in dudgeon, and largely devoid of substantive […]
Features
Yes, traditional Church teaching on capital punishment is definitive
given the “hermeneutic of continuity” emphasized by Pope Benedict XVI – and given especially the teaching of the First Vatican Council that popes have no […]
Features
Catholic theologians must set an example of intellectual honesty: A reply to Prof. Robert Fastiggi
In order to defend the suggestion that a pope could teach that capital punishment is always and intrinsically immoral, you have to maintain that the […]
The Dispatch
Capital Punishment and the Papal Magisterium: A Response to Dr. Edward Feser
The issue is not so much whether prior popes were in error in their scriptural citations. The issue is whether their scriptural appeals qualify as […]