Posted on FreeRepublic.com, 7/22/01

Lately, there has been a tendency to include opposition to Capital Punishment as part of a “Litmus Test” applied to those who call themselves “pro-life.” The implication is that Capital Punishment is part of the Culture of Death, which must be opposed alongside abortion, contraception (and the promiscuous immoral sex that derives from a cultures widespread acceptance of the contraceptive mentality), homosexuality, and euthanasia.

Pope John Paul II feels so strongly about the death penalty that the new Catechism of the Catholic Church was amended in its second printing to reflect his thinking. The Catechism of the Catholic Church, in its 1992 form, does not exclude the possibility that a state could justifiably use capital punishment in cases "of extreme gravity," but adds: "If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority should limit itself to such means..." [#2266, 2267]

In Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II wrote that punishment should not include the death penalty "if it is not a case of absolute necessity, in which the defense of society would not otherwise be possible." The Pope continued, "such cases are now very rare, if not practically non-existent." However, the Holy Father added that the principles put forth in the Catechism remain valid.

Father Georges Cottier, OP, the papal theologian, commented on the Pope's teaching by saying: "The Catholic Church-- in this encyclical, as in the Catechism-- recognizes that states can maintain the death penalty, but under such conditions that it is not applicable."

So a case can be made that from the perspective of charity, and within the framework of justice in modern society, that Capital Punishment should be so rare as to be non-existent. This is the thinking of the current Pope, the Catechism now reflects that thinking, and many pro-life activists are indeed personally opposed to Capital Punishment.

The Roman Catholic Church, in the person of Pope John Paul II, coined the terms “Culture of Life” and “Culture of Death.” The four components that are traditionally named as the four pillars of the Culture of Death are 1)the contraceptive mentality (from which springs abortion and the current destruction of marriage and the family), 2)abortion, 3)homosexuality and 4)euthanasia. But does inclusion of Capital Punishment alongside cheapen the opposition to abortion that is the bulwark of pro-life activism?

Christian moral theology has condemned these four pillars of the Culture of Death, constantly and definitively, since the times of the apostles themselves. All of Christianity unanimously taught contraception to be inherently evil (i.e., no circumstances can make it acceptable) until 1930, when the Anglicans caved to pressure from the Margaret Sangers of the early 1900’s and permitted contraception, but only in carefully defined circumstances. The ensuing decades saw all mainstream Protestant sects fall into apostasy on these issues until the present time, when only Roman Catholicism remains steadfast in its adherence to the continual teaching of Christianity against contraception.

Likewise, Christianity has always condemned abortion, homosexuality, and Euthanasia as inherently evil, with some denominations falling recently to the pressures of the modern world to change.

Unlike these four pillars of the Culture of Death, Capital Punishment has continuously been regarded as morally licit, for the vast majority of the history of Christianity, with some modern changes in thinking. According to Scripture,

"If a man be dangerous and infectious to the community, on account of some sin, it is praiseworthy and advantageous that he be killed in order to safeguard the common good, since 'a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump' (I Cor. 5:6)"

St. Thomas Aquinas sums up the thought of most Christian tradition on the subject,

"The life of certain pestiferous men is an impediment to the common good which is the concord of human society. Therefore, certain men must be removed by death from the society of men.... Therefore, the ruler of a state executes pestiferous men justly and sinlessly in order that the peace of the state may not be disrupted.... [However], the execution of the wicked is forbidden wherever it cannot be done with out danger to the good. Of course, this often happens when the wicked are not clearly distinguished from the good by their sins, or when the danger of the evil involving many good men in this ruin is feared" (Book III, ch. 146).

Clearly, the continual teaching of Christianity has been that Capital Punishment is not only necessary but also just and licit, until as recently as the past decade in the Roman Catholic Church in particular, and earlier in some of the mainstream Protestant denomination. Some other conservative denominations continue to teach that Capital Punishment is morally licit and just.

Therefore, the questions must be asked:

Is the Death Penalty Part of the Culture of Death?

Is Opposition to Capital Punishment Part of the Culture of Life?

More importantly, does not the current practice of equating opposition to Capital Punishment with opposition to abortion itself cheapen and trivialize the grave crime of abortion?

To quote the "Pro-Life Encyclopedia:

"Have we not fallen victim to the agenda and verbal engineering of the pro-abortion left?

"In order to be executed, a hardened criminal must:

1. commit an extremely atrocious crime.

2. be caught.

3. be informed of AND UNDERSTAND his legal rights.

4. be found mentally competent.

5. be convicted by a jury of his peers.

6. be sentenced to death.

7. commit his crime in a state which employs capital punishment.

8. not receive a stay of execution.

"For an unborn child to lose his life, he need only be "unwanted" by one person.

"How can we compare the inmates of death row to unborn children? Is there any one more innocent than these babies? Do they in any way understand their rights? Are they mentally competent? Do they receive a fair trial - or even a chance to present their case?"

Furthermore, abortion is and always will be “inherently evil”, i.e., by its very nature evil, and no circumstances can change that.

Capital Punishment has only become unnecessary because of the conditions of modern society whereby society can be protected from a heinous criminal by the modern criminal justice system. Its “relative evil” in the minds of those who include the Death Penalty in the Culture of Death is completely circumstantial. Capital punishment not only is not “inherently evil” but given different societal circumstances -- which have indeed existed in the recent past in First World countries, still exist in many Third World countries, and could exist again here in the not distant future – it would again right, just and morally licit.

Therefore, it seems it would be time to completely divorce debate over Capital Punishment from debate over true Culture of Death issues.

Furthermore, as poor catechesis and Biblical formation leads more and more Christians to fall into apostasy regarding not only contraception but also abortion, homosexuality, and euthanasia, it is more urgent than ever to divorce the issue of Capital Punishment from those legitimately condemned as belonging to the Culture of Death.

Why? Because in a world that is post-Christian, where even practicing Christians fail to have the reasoning and critical thinking to separate that which is inherently evil from that which is only made evil by current circumstances, the danger lies in more Christians seeing inherent evil as not being evil due to circumstances. The recent changes in Church teaching regarding Capital Punishment are finely nuanced and situational. The constant teachings regarding contraception, abortion, homosexuality and euthanasia simply cannot and will never be changed. Keeping Capital Punishment alongside these other issues leads many to conclude that like Capital Punishment, these other Culture of Death issues can be made acceptable by our changing societal circumstances. Persisting to lump these separate issues together threatens to destroy any efforts to teach the inherently evil and unchangeable nature of true Culture of Death issues.

Situational ethics have won the day in too many battles in the Culture Wars already. We cannot afford to lose the overall war between the Culture of Life and the Culture of Death because some, either willfully or simply because of an inability to see clear distinctions, continue to lump Capital Punishment alongside the true Culture of Death pillars of contraception, abortion, homosexuality, and euthanasia.