381. Death penalty

YOUCAT Catechism + Catechism of the Catholic Church Lesson 381

Ave Maria series

Why is the Church opposed to capital punishment?

he Church is committed to opposing the death penalty because it is “both cruel and unnecessary” (St. John Paul II, St. Louis, January 27, 1999).  [2266-2267]

Mehmet Ali Agca  who shot John Paul II 1981 laid flowers Christmas 2014 the saint's tomb in St. Peter's Basilica.….. 381

Every legitimate State has in principle the right to punish crime appropriately.  In “Evangelium vitae(1995)”, the Pope does not say that the use of the death penalty is in every respect an unacceptable and illegitimate punishment.  To take the life of a criminal is an extreme measure to which the State should resort only “in cases of absolute necessity”.  This necessity arises when the only way to protect human society is by killing the convicted criminal.  But such cases, says Pope John Paul II, “are very rare, if not practically non-existent”.

[2266-2267]        

Legitimate defense

2266 The efforts of the state to curb the spread of behavior harmful to people's rights and to the basic rules of civil society correspond to the requirement of safeguarding the common good. Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense. Punishment has the primary aim of redressing the disorder introduced by the offense. When it is willingly accepted by the guilty party, it assumes the value of expiation. Punishment then, in addition to defending public order and protecting people's safety, has a medicinal purpose: as far as possible, it must contribute to the correction of the guilty party. (Compare Luke 23:40-43.)⁶⁷–Catechism of the Catholic Church, Second Edition

2267 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. –CCC

Pope  Mehmet Ali Agca