As we observe October as Respect Life Month, we often think of protecting innocent human life, such as the unborn, the sick, the disabled, and the elderly. But I think it is more challenging to consider protecting the lives of those who have been convicted of crimes. Obviously, they are not innocent.
However, as Catholics we are called to protect ALL human life. In 2018, Pope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church’s section on the death penalty to teach that the death penalty is “inadmissible” and to say that the Church “works with determination for its abolition worldwide.” In a rescript, or decree, the Holy Father replaced the previous version of n. 2267 of the Catechism to read:
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, 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.”
The pope approved the rescript on May 11, 2018, and it was signed by Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Authentic development
In an explanatory letter to bishops, dated August 1, 2018, Cardinal Ladaria drew on the past teaching of Pope St. John Paul II and Benedict XVI on the death penalty, saying the change is an “authentic development of doctrine that is not in contradiction with the prior teachings of the Magisterium.”
This development centers principally on the clearer awareness of the Church for the respect due to every human life. Along this line, St. John Paul II affirmed: “Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this.”
We Catholics must work to oppose the death penalty. Fortunately, Wisconsin abolished capital punishment in 1853, and we must ensure that it remains the law of our state.