of the Prof. Roberto De Mattei
The lawfulness of the death penalty is a truth to be held by faith, defined by the ordinary and universal Magisterium of the Church, in a constant and unequivocal manner. Who says capital punishment is, in itself, bad, falls into heresy.
The teaching of the Church was clearly expressed in the letter of 18 December 1208, in which Innocent III condemns the Waldensian position, with these words, reported by Denzinger: «We assert a secular power, that without mortal sin he can exercise the judgment of blood, provided that I do not hate to take revenge, but by judgment, not carelessly, but let him proceed in consultation» ( A handbook of symbols,definitions and declarations on matters of faith and morals, edited by Peter Hünermann S.J., n. 795). (As for secular power, we affirm that the death penalty can be exercised without mortal sin, provided that revenge is exercised not out of hatred, but by judgment, not in an imprudent way, but in moderation).
The same position was reiterated by Catechism of the Council of Trent (Part three, n. 328), dal Catechism maggiore of Saint Pius (Part three, n. 413) and from the new Catechism of the Catholic Church (n. 2267) (albeit invalid because legislated by illegitimate authorities, n.d.r.). Pope Francis (Il “not-pope” Francesco, n.d.r.) he has now signed a rescript that modifies the Catechism (of the Conciliar Counter-Church itself, n.d.r.) with this new formulation: «The Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that 'the death penalty is inadmissible because it attacks the inviolability and dignity of the person', and is committed with determination to its abolition throughout the world».
According to the Prefect of the Congregation for the Faith (conciliate, n.d.r.), cardinal (conciliate, n.d.r.) Luis Ladaria, the new text follows in the footsteps of the teaching of John Paul II (“not dad” because he lost all authority due to manifest heresy, ex can. 188 del Codex 1917 n.d.r.) in the encyclical The gospel of life (invalid because promulgated by illegitimate authority, n.d.r.), but the difference is radical. John Paul II, in The gospel of life, believes that the Church, in current historical circumstances must be in favor of the abolition of capital punishment, but states that the death penalty is not per se unfair e the commandment «do not kill» has absolute value only « when it refers to innocent person» (nn. 56-57). Pope Francis, however, judges capital punishment in itself to be inadmissible, openly denying a truth infallibly defined by the ordinary Magisterium of the Church.
To justify this variation, appeal is made to the changed sociological conditions. In the rescript of Pope Francis it is said that «For a long time the use of the death penalty by legitimate authorities, after a regular process, it was considered an adequate response to the seriousness of some crimes and an acceptable means, even if extreme, for the protection of the common good. Today there is an ever-increasing awareness that a person's dignity is not lost even after committing very serious crimes. Furthermore, a new understanding of the meaning of criminal sanctions by the State has spread. In the end, More effective detention systems have been developed, which guarantee the dutiful defense of citizens, ma, at the same time, they do not definitively take away from the criminal the possibility of redeeming himself».
However, the notion of "human dignity" does not change, depending on the times and historical circumstances, just as the moral meaning of justice and punishment does not change. First xii, explains that when the State resorts to the death penalty, he does not claim to be the master of human life, but only recognizes that the criminal, through a sort of moral suicide, he deprived himself of the right to life. According to the Pope, «even when it comes to the capital execution of a person condemned to death, the State does not have the individual's right to life. It is then reserved to the public power to deprive the convicted person of bene of life, in atonement for his fault, after, with his crime, it has already stripped itself of its own right to life» (Speech of the 14 September 1952, in Speeches and Radio Messages vol. XIV, p. 328 ).
For their part, i theologians and moralists, over the centuries, and St. Thomas Aquinas to St. Alphonsus of Liguori, they explained how the death penalty is not justified only by the need to protect the community, but it also has a retributive nature, as it re-establishes a violated moral order, and it has a expiatory value, as was the death of the Good Thief, that united him to the supreme sacrifice of Our Lord.
Pope Francis' new rescript expresses that theological evolutionism, condemned by Saint Pius Feeding and by Pius XII in Of the human race, which has nothing to do with the homogeneous development of the dogma discussed by Cardinal John Henry Newman. The condition for the development of dogma is in fact that the new theological statements do not contradict the previous teaching of the Church, but they limit themselves to making it explicit and examining it in greater depth.
In the end, as in the case of the condemnation of contraception, We are not here faced with theological opinions on which it is legitimate to debate, but to moral truths that belong to the A deposit of faith and which is therefore obligatory to accept in order to remain Catholic. We hope that the theologians and Pastors of the Church will intervene as soon as possible to publicly correct this latest serious mistake by Pope Francis.
(LifeSiteNews, 3 August 2018)
