tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239326.post6799427819055054272..comments2023-11-05T01:26:58.235-06:00Comments on Catholic Fire: Question from a reader about abortion vs. capital punishment and my answerUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239326.post-6580941737131745692009-09-05T08:34:03.357-05:002009-09-05T08:34:03.357-05:00Colleen
Except that God repeatedly gave death ...Colleen<br /> Except that God repeatedly gave death penalties in the Book you are supposed to love...start with Genesis 9:5-6 which is for both Gentiles and Jews and is not part of the Jewish laws that are now void....end with Romans 13:3-4 which is in the NT which you are supposed to love and which postdates the words of Christ and was inspired by Him nonetheless.<br /> Your concern about innocent men being executed can be solved by raising the bar on the evidence needed in such cases. Catholic countries without the death penalty are about half the top 12 murder rate countries in the world.<br />And I have no words for Mexico and its chaos which hasn't had the death penalty for decades except in reverse toward the police.bill bannonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09737277581167437670noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239326.post-90835221379916168842009-08-31T12:03:54.620-05:002009-08-31T12:03:54.620-05:00The Catholic Church: the death penalty & abort...The Catholic Church: the death penalty & abortion are very different topics, morally & theologically. <br />Dudley Sharp, contact info below<br /> <br />Catholics in good standing can support the death penalty and even an increase in executions, if their own prudential judgement calls for it.<br /> <br />The Catholic teaching is that abortion is always an intrinsic evil.<br /><br />1) Pope Benedict XVI (then Cardinal Ratzinger) <br /> <br />"stated succinctly, emphatically and unambiguously as follows": "Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia." (1)<br /> <br />2) "Catholics in Political Life", Statement of United States Conference of Catholic Bishops<br /> <br />It is the teaching of the Catholic Church from the very beginning, founded on her understanding of her Lord’s own witness to the sacredness of human life, that the killing of an unborn child is always intrinsically evil and can never be justified. If those who perform an abortion and those who cooperate willingly in the action are fully aware of the objective evil of what they do, they are guilty of grave sin and thereby separate themselves from God’s grace. This is the constant and received teaching of the Church. It is, as well, the conviction of many other people of good will. <br /><br />To make such intrinsically evil actions legal is itself wrong. This is the point most recently highlighted in official Catholic teaching. The legal system as such can be said to cooperate in evil when it fails to protect the lives of those who have no protection except the law. In the United States of America, abortion on demand has been made a constitutional right by a decision of the Supreme Court. Failing to protect the lives of innocent and defenseless members of the human race is to sin against justice. Those who formulate law therefore have an obligation in conscience to work toward correcting morally defective laws, lest they be guilty of cooperating in evil and in sinning against the common good. <br /> <br /> <br />3) Cardinal Avery Dulles, SJ<br /> <br />"Pope John Paul II spoke for the whole Catholic tradition when he proclaimed, in Evangelium Vitae, that the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being is always gravely immoral (EV 57). But he wisely included in that statement the word innocent. He has never said that every criminal has a right to live nor has he denied that the State has the right in some cases to execute the guilty. " "No passage in the New Testament disapproves of the death penalty." (3)<br /><br /> <br /> <br />4) Fr. John De Celles, "What Ardent Practicing Catholics Do" (4)<br /> <br />"Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. There is … a grave and clear obligation to oppose them … [I]t is therefore never licit to … "take part in a propaganda campaign in favor of such a law, or vote for it." "In other words: it is always a grave or mortal sin for a politician to support abortion."<br /> <br />"Now, some will want to say that these bishops-and I- are crossing the line from Religion into to politics. But it was the Speaker of the House (Nancy Pelosi) who started this. The bishops, and I, are not crossing into politics; she, and other pro-abortion Catholic politicians, regularly cross over into teaching theology and doctrine, And it's our job to try clean up their mess."<br /><br />contddudleysharphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12796468204722853648noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6239326.post-37782176502632564272009-08-31T08:58:29.635-05:002009-08-31T08:58:29.635-05:00Great article! Wow, 400 years of executions only ...Great article! Wow, 400 years of executions only equal 5 days worth of abortions. <br /><br />From what I have read in various Christian and Catholic teachings, abortion is Satins greatest achievement, a blood sacrifice, and the greatest abomination against God.<br /><br />No wonder there are so many warnings about the upcoming chastisements for all our sins.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com