Dear Friends,
This past week, Pope Francis clarified Catholic teaching on the death penalty. During the past fifty years,
there has been an ongoing movement, within the teachings of the Church, to limit the use of the death penalty by
governments around the world. Pope John Paul II had said that its use should be rare and only when the common
good needs to be protected. Pope Benedict said the same. Now the following paragraphs will appear in the
Catholic Catechism to replace the prior ones about the use of the death penalty:
2267. Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long
considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of
safeguarding the common good.
Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the
commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal
sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the
due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of
redemption. Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, “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.
In a letter to the bishops of the world, the Holy See explained the change:
…when John Paul II promulgated the Catechism of the Catholic Church, he asked that the teaching on the death
penalty be reformulated so as to better reflect the development of the doctrine on this point that has taken place
in recent times. This development centers principally on the clearer awareness of the Church for the respect due
to every human life. Along this line, John Paul II affirmed: “Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and
God himself pledges to guarantee this.”
It is in the same light that one should understand the attitude towards the death penalty that is expressed ever
more widely in the teaching of pastors and in the sensibility of the people of God. If, in fact, the political and
social situation of the past made the death penalty an acceptable means for the protection of the common good,
today the increasing understanding that the dignity of a person is not lost even after committing the most serious
crimes, the deepened understanding of the significance of penal sanctions applied by the State, and the
development of more efficacious detention systems that guarantee the due protection of citizens have given rise
to a new awareness that recognizes the inadmissibility of the death penalty and, therefore, calling for its
abolition. In this development, the teaching of the Encyclical Letter Evangelium vitæ of John Paul II is of great
importance. The Holy Father enumerated among the signs of hope for a new culture of life “a growing public
opposition to the death penalty, even when such a penalty is seen as a kind of ‘legitimate defense’ on the part of
society. Modern society in fact has the means of effectively suppressing crime by rendering criminals harmless
without definitively denying them the chance to reform.” The teaching of Evangelium vitæ was then included in
the editio typica of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. In it, the death penalty is not presented as a
proportionate penalty for the gravity of the crime, but it can be justified if it is “the only practicable way to
defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor,” even if in reality “cases of absolute necessity
for suppression of the offender today are very rare, if not practically non-existent”
…In this same prospective, Pope Francis has reaffirmed that “today capital punishment is unacceptable,
however serious the condemned’s crime may have been.” The death penalty, regardless of the means of
execution, “entails cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment.” Furthermore, it is to be rejected “due to the
defective selectivity of the criminal justice system and in the face of the possibility of judicial error.” It is in this
light that Pope Francis has asked for a revision of the formulation of the Catechism of the Catholic Church on
the death penalty in a manner that affirms that “no matter how serious the crime that has been committed, the
death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and the dignity of the person.”
In light of this change, the bishops of Nebraska are asking you to contact your state senator and the
governor and ask them to stop the use of the death penalty in our state. This is especially urgent with the planned
execution coming on August 14th
.
Peace,
Fr. Damian