The Gospel of Life:
Catholic Social Teaching & the Death
Penalty
By Michael Stone, Virginia Coordinator for the
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
December 13, 2012
St. Mark’s Catholic Church -Vienna, VA
I am truly pleased to be with you tonight. I often worked with people
from the Diocese of Arlington during the 25 years that I labored for Bishop
Sullivan & Bishop DiLorenzo in the Diocese of Richmond. But today is just
the second time that I have been invited to speak before a Catholic
gathering in northern Virginia.
My task this evening is to describe Catholic teaching on capital
punishment. This is not a fun or easy thing to do, especially during this
Advent season of hope!
There is a significant body of church teaching that is centuries old
which relates our faith to society. This moral tradition is known as Catholic
Social Teaching.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, Catholic Social
Teaching grows out of two complementary sources: Scripture and the lived
experience of the church in history, or Tradition with a capital T. So
Catholic social teaching is authentic teaching of the church; it is real
doctrine.
If Catholic moral teaching is rooted in God’s revelation through
Scripture, that seems to be a good place to begin our examination of the
death penalty.
The first mention of killing is at the beginning of the Hebrew
Scriptures, or the Old Testament. The story of Cain & Abel takes place in
the fourth chapter of the first book of the Bible, in the Book of Genesis:
Cain said to his brother Abel, “Let us go out in the field.” When they
were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.
Then the LORD asked Cain, Where is your brother Abel? He
answered, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
God then said: What have you done? Your brother’s blood cries out to
me from the ground! Now you are banned from the ground that
opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. If
you till the ground, it shall no longer give you its produce. You shall
become a constant wanderer on the earth.
Cain said to the LORD: “My punishment is too great to bear. Look,
you have now banished me from the ground. I must avoid you and
be a constant wanderer on the earth. Anyone may kill me at sight.”
Not so! the LORD said to him. If anyone kills Cain, Cain shall be
avenged seven times. So the LORD put a mark on Cain, so that no
one would kill him at sight.
Here we have a curious story. The first murder recorded in Scripture
is not dealt with as harshly as one might think. In fact, God strips Cain of
his profession as a farmer and sends him into exile. There is no death
sentence or even a term of imprisonment. The Lord God goes so far as to
place a mark of protection upon Cain so that he will not be harmed in
exile!
Further on in the Old Testament we find what is probably the most
well known single line of Scripture on the death penalty:
Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death;
whoever takes the life of an animal shall make restitution of another
animal. A life for a life! Anyone who inflicts an injury on his neighbor
shall receive the same in return.
Limb for limb, eye for eye, tooth for tooth! The same injury that a
man gives another shall be inflicted on him in return.
This passage from the 24th chapter of the Book of Leviticus is quoted
not only by Christians, but by many people in the secular world who support
capital punishment.
But this is just the beginning of the Mosaic Law’s treatment of the
death penalty. Here are several other passages that are not as well known:
If a man has a stubborn and unruly son who will not listen to his
father or mother, and will not obey them even though they chastise
him, his father and mother shall have him apprehended and brought
out to the elders at the gate of his home city, ...
Then all his fellow citizens shall stone him to death. Thus shall you
purge the evil from your midst, and all Israel, on hearing of it, shall
fear.
- Deuteronomy 21: 18-21
Whoever strikes his father or mother shall be put to death. ...
Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death.
- Exodus 21: 15-17
Six days there are for doing work, but the seventh day is the sabbath
of complete rest, sacred to the LORD. Anyone who does work on the
sabbath day shall be put to death.
- Exodus 31: 15
As you can see the Hebrew code of conduct was quite harsh, dealing
out death not only to killers but to unruly or obedient children and those
who refused to attend synagogue on the sabbath. There were a total of 36
separate offenses in the law of Moses that called for the death penalty.
I doubt that many of those who use an “eye for an eye” these days
would advocate capital punishment for these infractions! Yet if we are
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compelled to follow this one Scriptural command, then why not the others
as well?
Now we come to the very curious story of Moses. He was born while
the Jewish people were slaves in Egypt. According to the Book of Exodus,
the Pharaoh feared the multiplying Jews and ordered his people to “Throw
into the Nile every boy that is born, but you may let all the girls live.”
Moses’ mother hid him and nursed him for three months. When she
feared that the baby would be found, she set Moses into a basket and set
him adrift in the Nile River. The daughter of Pharaoh found Moses and
raised him as her own son.
So Moses was raised in great wealth and privilege. But he was
impulsive and ended up in exile because of a murder:
On one occasion, after Moses had grown up, when he had gone out to
his kinsmen and witnessed their forced labor, he saw an Egyptian
striking a Hebrew, one of his own kinsmen.
Looking about and seeing no one, he struck down the Egyptian and
hid him in the sand.
The next day he went out again, and now two Hebrews were fighting!
So he asked the culprit, “Why are you striking your companion?”
But he replied, “Who has appointed you ruler and judge over us? Are
you thinking of killing me as you killed the Egyptian?” Then Moses
became afraid and thought, “The affair must certainly be known.”
When Pharaoh heard of the affair, he sought to kill Moses. But Moses
fled from Pharaoh and went to the land of Midian. (Exodus 2: 11-15)
So God chooses a killer who fled justice to lead the Hebrew people out
of slavery in Egypt. Later King David arranged for the death of Uriah so
that he could take his attractive wife as part of his harem:
Let’s move on to the New Testament. What does Jesus have to say
about the death penalty? While not addressing this issue directly, Jesus
certainly makes it clear what he expects from his followers:
You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth fora
tooth.’
But I say to you, offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone
strikes you on (your) right cheek, turn the other one to him as well.
- Matthew 5: 38-39
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and
hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute
you.
- Matthew 5: 43-44
Stop judging, that you may not be judged. For as you judge, so will
you be judged, and the measure with which you measure will be
measured out to you.
- Matthew 5: 43-44
At another point in the Gospels, Jesus is faced with a tense and angry
mob. They present him someone clearly guilty of an offense that, according
to Mosaic Law, demanded the death penalty:
Then the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been
caught in adultery and made her stand in the middle.
They said to him, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the very act of
committing adultery. Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone
such women. So what do you say?”
They said this to test him, so that they could have some charge to
bring against him. Jesus bent down and began to write on the ground
with his finger.
But when they continued asking him, he straightened up and said to
them, “Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to throw
a stone at her.” Again he bent down and wrote on the ground.
And in response, they went away one by one, beginning with the
elders. So he was left alone with the woman before him.
- John 8: 3-9
Of course, none of these instances involved Jesus personally. Some
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say that these are just nice sayings given by Jesus. So let’s consider what
He had to say when “the rubber meets the road”:
When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him and
the criminals there, one on his right, the other on his left.
Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.”
- Luke 23: 33-34
Just as was the case with the first murder recorded in Scripture, that
of Abel by his brother Cain, God showed mercy to those who were guilty of
killing the Holy One who was truly innocent. This time the words of mercy
were uttered by God’s only Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
There is another reference to the death penalty in the New Testament.
This is often the one to which many Christians who support capital
punishment point, especially Evangelicals. The following is part of the 13th
chapter of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans:
Let every person be subordinate to the higher authorities, for there is
no authority except from God, and those that exist have been
established by God.
Therefore, whoever resists authority opposes what God has appointed,
and those who oppose it will bring judgment upon themselves. For
rulers are not a cause of fear to good conduct, but to evil.
Do you wish to have no fear of authority? Then do what is good and
you will receive approval from it, for it is a servant of God for your
good.
But if you do evil, be afraid, for it does not bear the sword without
purpose; it is the servant of God to inflict wrath on the evildoer.
- Romans 13: 1-4
Both St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas wrote in support of capital
punishment, using language that is very close to that used by St. Paul in this
particular passage. They argued that God established civil authority to
protect and defend the public order, and that the death penalty could
lawfully be used to execute judgment on offenders. This is “the sword” to
which St. Paul refers.
I personally find it curious that so many point to Romans 13 in support
of capital punishment and ignore what was written immediately before this
section in the 12th chapter of Romans:
Bless those who persecute (you), bless and do not curse them. ... Do
not repay anyone evil for evil; be concerned for what is noble in the
sight of all. If possible, on your part, live at peace with all.
Beloved, do not look for revenge ... for it is written, “Vengeance is
mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” Rather, “if your enemy is hungry,
feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing
you will heap burning coals upon his head.” Do not be conquered by
evil but conquer evil with good.
- Romans 12: 14-21
The one who wrote this passage, St. Paul, has a most unusual
personal story. As a young man St. Paul was a witness to the stoning of the
first Christian martyr, St. Stephen. In the 22nd chapter of the Acts of the
Apostles describes his role in the stoning:
.. when the blood of your witness Stephen was being shed, I myself
stood by giving my approval and keeping guard over the cloaks of his
murderers.
- Acts 22: 20
At the very least Saul, as he was known then, was an accessory to
what he himself called murder. But this was only the beginning of his
hostility toward the early Christian community. Later in the Acts of the
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Apostles St. Paul describes his actions in greater detail:
I myself once thought that I had to do many things against the name
of Jesus the Nazorean, and I did so in Jerusalem. I imprisoned many
of the holy ones with the authorization I received from the chief
priests, and when they were to be put to death I cast my vote against
them. Many times, in synagogue after synagogue, I punished them in
an attempt to force them to blaspheme; I was so enraged against
them that I pursued them even to foreign cities.
- Acts 26: 9-11
So what happened to Saul, the persecutor of Christians?
Now Saul, still breathing murderous threats against the disciples of
the Lord, went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the
synagogues in Damascus, that, if he should find any men or women
who belonged to the Way, he might bring them back to Jerusalem in
chains.
On his journey, as he was nearing Damascus, a light from the sky
suddenly flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a
voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
He said, “Who are you, sir?” The reply came, “I am Jesus, whom you
are persecuting. Now get up and go into the city and you will be told
what you must do.”
The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, for they
heard the voice but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground,
but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing; so they led him by
the hand and brought him to Damascus. For three days he was
unable to see, and he neither ate nor drank.
There was a disciple in Damascus named Ananias, and the Lord said
to him in a vision, “Ananias.” He answered, “Here I am, Lord.”
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The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street called Straight and
ask at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul. He is
there praying, and [in a vision] he has seen a man named Ananias
come in and lay [his] hands on him, that he may regain his sight.”
But Ananias replied, “Lord, I have heard from many sources about this
man, what evil things he has done to your holy ones in Jerusalem.
And here he has authority from the chief priests to imprison all who
call upon your name.”
But the Lord said to him, “Go, for this man is a chosen instrument of
mine to carry my name before Gentiles, kings, and Israelites, and I
will show him what he will have to suffer for my name.”
So Ananias went and entered the house; laying his hands on him, he
said, “Saul, my brother, the Lord has sent me, Jesus who appeared to
you on the way by which you came, that you may regain your sight
and be filled with the holy Spirit.”
Immediately things like scales fell from his eyes and he regained his
sight. He got up and was baptized, and when he had eaten, he
recovered his strength.
- Acts 9:1-19
Put yourself into the role of Ananias. God asks him to go to this man
who has been empowered to arrest all Christians in the city. There is little
wonder that Ananias and the other believers in Damascus would be terrified
of Saul - the one who participated in the murder of St. Stephen and the
mass incarceration and persecution of the early church.
But what is God’s verdict toward this killer of Christians? Does God
demand vengeance and a just death?
Like the cases of Abel and Jesus, God shows extraordinary mercy
toward Saul. God does not only forgive him for his crimes against the
church, but anoints him for the tasks of preaching the Good News to the
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Gentiles. Saul becomes St. Paul, the man most responsible for spreading
Christianity to every corner of the Roman Empire.
It is truly difficult to wrap one’s mind around this story. The only
modern analogy I can think of would be this. Imagine someone like Osama
bin laden having had a dramatic conversion & campaigning in every nation
of the Middle Easter for western democracy or for Christianity.
So it is clear from the Biblical record that mercy and forgiveness are
cornerstones of our faith. Yet there are also grounds as well for supporting
the use of the death penalty. And that was the official position of the
Catholic Church for centuries - qualified support for capital punishment.
For this next section of my presentation I will summarize what
Archbishop Wilton Gregory wrote in 2008. He gave a superb talk at the
Emory Law School in Atlanta that described the evolution of church
teaching on the death penalty.
After the Roman Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity, church
authorities adopted a near unanimous support for capital punishment in
limited circumstances. St. Augustine, for example, asserted that
participation in war or in the legal execution of criminals did not violate the
commandment “Thou shalt not kill”. But Augustine also insisted on purity
of motive when carrying out a death sentence. A judge or executioner
needed to display genuine remorse for his actions.
Centuries later, Pope Innocent III approved capital punishment so
long as it was carried out “with justice, and not out of hatred; with
prudence, and not with precipitation.” Soon afterwards the church's Fourth
Lateran Council declared that “no cleric may decree or pronounce a
sentence involving the shedding of blood, or carry out a punishment
involving the same, or be present when such punishment is carried out.”
Still later St. Thomas Aquinas argued that ecclesiastical courts and
the state should refrain from using the death penalty except for very grave
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offenses such as murder and treason.
Now let’s fast forward to the twentieth century, a time of dramatic
change in the way that the Catholic Church came to understand capital
punishment.
In 1972 the Catholic Bishops of Florida declared their opposition to
the death penalty. Two years later the U.S. Catholic Conference, the
collective voice of the American bishops, declared its opposition to capital
punishment. And in 1976 the Pontifical Commission for Justice and Peace
expressed its opposition to the death penalty.
Four years later, in 1980 the U.S. Bishops adopted a Statement on
Capital Punishment that reviewed the three traditional justifications for the
death penalty: retribution, deterrence and reform. In this 1980 statement
the Bishops argued that the goal of reforming the offender is hindered by
capital punishment because the opportunity for a prisoner to reform is cut
short.
In their consideration of the deterrence rationale, the Bishops noted
that the death penalty certainly protects society by permanently removing
the offender from society through his death. However, the Bishops
expressed serious doubt as to the deterrent value of executions in relation
to those who might commit heinous crimes in the future.
Recently the Bishops’ judgment on this point was reaffirmed by an
exhaustive study by the National Academy of Sciences. The study
concluded that the existing research on the topic just can't tell us one way
or the other whether the death penalty has any deterrent effect. But the
study did clearly state that executions are not the driving force behind
fluctuations in the U.S. homicide rate. Instead homicide rates tend to rise
and fall roughly in unison across states, even as some -- such as Texas --
ramp up executions while other states have none.
Finally, in their 1980 Statement on Capital Punishment, the U.S.
Bishops examined the third moral argument that the death penalty fulfills
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the societal and individual need for retribution. The Bishops rejected this
argument as utterly unconvincing: They stated that:
Forms of punishment must be determined with a view to the
protection of society and its members and to the reformation of the
criminal and his reintegration into society. ...
We believe that in the conditions of contemporary American society,
the legitimate purposes of punishment do not justify the imposition of
the death penalty.
Furthermore, we believe that there are serious considerations which
should prompt Christians and all Americans to support the abolition
of capital punishment. Some of these reasons have to do with evils
that are present in the practice of capital punishment itself, while
others involve important values that would be promoted by abolition
of this practice.
And so we come to the pontificate of Pope John Paul II. In March
1995 he issued his encyclical letter, Evangelium Vitae, or The Gospel of
Life. For the first time the Holy Father addressed Respect Life issues at
length for the first time in a Vatican document.
In this landmark document, Pope John Paul II focuses on three major
threats to human life & dignity - abortion, euthanasia, & capital
punishment. Interestingly enough, the Pope started with a discussion of the
death penalty. The Holy Father firmly rejected any notion of vengeance in
application of capital punishment. Instead, he argued, the punishment
should defend the public order, ensure the safety of people, and offer the
offender help & incentive to be rehabilitated.
The Pontiff says that the death penalty ought not to be applied except
in cases of absolute necessity, when there is no other way to defend society.
He concludes by observing that such instances today are very rare, if not
non-existent.
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Given the great care that the church insists be given to the life &
dignity of criminals, the Pope affirmed that the commandment ' You shall not
kill has absolute value when it refers to innocent persons. The deliberate
decision to deprive an innocent human being of his or her life is always
morally evil and can never be justified as an end in itself. Nor can killing an
innocent person ever be a means to a good end.
Pope John Paul II went on in Evangelium Vitae to examine and
condemn abortion, infanticide, experimentation on living embryos,
euthanasia, and assisted suicide. The Holy Father clearly saw links between
capital punishment and these other pro-life issues.
He declared that violence in any form is antithetical to the Gospel of
Life. With joy and gratitude for the life that God has given, John Paul II
called all of us to proclaim the good news of the Gospel of Life: namely, that
each & every human life is sacred and inviolable. The Gospel of Life is both
a great gift from God and an exacting task for humanity. In giving life to
humanity, God demands that we love, respect, & promote life.
The Pope challenges us to transform our culture and to imbue it with
a profound honor and respect for each person. He calls on all people of good
will to become unconditionally pro-life:
Where life is involved, the service of charity must be profoundly
consistent. It cannot tolerate bias and discrimination, for human life
is sacred and inviolable at every stage and in every situation; it is an
indivisible good. We need then to “show care” for all life and for the
life of everyone.
John Paul II urged us to use the legislative process in defense of
human life & dignity. It is not enough, he told us in Evangelium Vitae, to
mitigate or eliminate unjust laws. Society must work to promote the
common good. Not only must we refashion society, but ourselves.
John Paul II made it clear that no single person or group is alone
responsible for the defense and promotion of human life & dignity. These
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are everyone's task and responsibility.
Later in his Pontificate John Paul II repeatedly and forcefully
articulated the church’s opposition to the death penalty. In 1997 then-
Cardinal Ratzinger had to order a revision to the Catechism of the Catholic
Church published only five years before to reflect this new more forceful
teaching.
According to Archbishop Wilton Gregory, in his 2008 address at
Emory Law School, the 1992 edition of the Catechism presented the three
traditional moral rationales for the death penalty -- retribution, deterrence,
and reform. In contrast, the second 1997 edition removed the argument
that capital punishment restored public order that had been disrupted by
the crime. In addition, the second edition removed the notion that the death
penalty acted as a deterrent.
All that remained of the older teaching was the defense of society. In
Evangelium Vitae John Paul II clearly expressed his view that modern
society had non-lethal means to protect innocent life from a dangerous
offender:
On this matter [the death penalty] there is a growing tendency, both
in the Church and in civil society, to demand that it be applied in a
very limited way or even that it be abolished completely. The
problem must be viewed in the context of a system of penal justice
ever more in line with human dignity and thus, in the end, with God's
plan for man and society.
The primary purpose of the punishment which society inflicts is “to
redress the disorder caused by the offence”. Public authority must
redress the violation of personal and social rights by imposing on the
offender an adequate punishment for the crime, as a condition for
the offender to regain the exercise of his or her freedom. In this way
authority also fulfills the purpose of defending public order and
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ensuring people's safety, while at the same time offering the offender
an incentive and help to change his or her behavior and be
rehabilitated.
It is clear that, for these purposes to be achieved, the nature and
extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided
upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender
except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would
not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a
result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal
system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.
Here is how the 1997 version of the Catechism of the Catholic
Church presented church teaching on the death penalty:
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.
If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect
people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such
means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of
the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the
Auman person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state
has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has
committed an offense incapable of doing harm—without definitively
taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself—the
cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity
“are very rare, if not practically non-existent.” [John Paul II,
Evangelium vitae 56.]
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Over the last 30 years, Catholic Bishops around the world have
worked to limit, restrain or end the use of society's ultimate punishment.
Here in the United States virtually every Bishop, State Catholic Conference,
and U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops forcefully opposes the death
penalty.
The Bishops of the following states have issued joint statements
calling for an end to capital punishment in their jurisdictions - California,
Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, lowa, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota,
Missouri, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio,
Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Wisconsin.
In our own state Bishop Loverde, Bishop DiLorenzo, & the Virginia
Catholic Conference are very active in the General Assembly opposing
expansion of capital punishment and urging clemency for those on death
row (that is, reducing their sentence to life in prison without parole).
Since 1999, when Pope John Paul II called for an end to the death
penalty in a visit to the United States, the annual number of executions in
the U.S. has dropped by more than half, the number of new death sentences
has fallen by more than 60%, and five of the most Catholic states in the
nation - Connecticut, New Mexico, Illinois, New York, and New Jersey -
have joined the growing list of states that have ended the death penalty
altogether.
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In closing, let me quote Pope John Paul II one more time. In his
apostolic exhortation The Church in America (or Ecclesia in America)
the Holy Father wrote about “the culture of death” in the Americas:
Nowadays, in America as elsewhere in the world, a model of society
appears to be emerging in which the powerful predominate, setting
aside and even eliminating the powerless: I am thinking here of
unborn children, helpless victims of abortion; the elderly and
incurably ill, subjected at times to euthanasia; and the many other
people relegated to the margins of society by consumerism and
materialism. Nor can I fail to mention the unnecessary recourse to
the death penalty when other bloodless means are sufficient to
defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order
and the safety of persons. Today, given the means at the State’s
disposal to deal with crime and control those who commit it, without
abandoning all hope of their redemption, the cases where it is
absolutely necessary to do away with an offender are now very rare,
even non-existent practically. This model of society bears the stamp
of the culture of death, and is therefore in opposition to the Gospel
message. Faced with this distressing reality, the Church community
intends to commit itself all the more to the defense of the culture of
life.
- Pope John Paul II, The Church in America (Ecclesia in
America)
This is a daunting challenge for all of us. But, with the grace of God,
we can be faithful to the Gospel of Life in our personal relationships, in our
workplaces, and in our civic involvement. Perhaps we will, bit by bit, help
to build God's reign of justice, peace, mercy, and compassion.
Thank you for your kind attention.
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