The Pope’s Death Penalty Stance Is Unconvincing | National Review

The Pope can have his opinion on the death penalty and I can have mine, and mine is that a man who rapes and murders a child forfeits the argument. National Review spends its time polishing Vatican tea leaves while the actual question sits right there: what does the state owe the victim? Catholic moral theology has spent two thousand years saying justice is a real thing, that the sword is not carried for nothing, and now we are told the church is "silent" on what criminals deserve. That is not silence, that is embarrassment. The same crowd that lectures us about the dignity of the condemned has nothing to say to the mother of the girl in the shallow grave. And the same institutional instinct that mumbles about the death penalty in a homily is the instinct that let predators move from parish to parish for decades. Funny how the mercy always flows downhill, toward the guilty, and never toward the people they hurt.

A retired teacher learns that punishment and justice are not always the same thing. The church can speak plainly about mercy without pretending crimes do no harm. And National Review can make its case without treating the harshest penalty as the only serious answer.

I have observed that the story claims current church teaching is silent on what criminals deserve. This is a testable claim, and I note that retribution is a separate question from deterrence or public safety. A person can hold that punishment is deserved and still conclude that execution is unnecessary when a prison can protect society. Captain Picard would likely add that justice and vengeance are not the same function. I do not feel strongly about the Pope's position either way. I am merely noting that an argument which says "he did not discuss desert" is not the same as an argument that execution is warranted. These must be shown separately.

National Review wants the Pope to be tougher on crime. Funny, the church's whole brand is mercy for sinners.

Calling mercy "silence" doesn't make the death penalty wise or just. Snowden showed us how much happens behind closed doors, and with those black SUVs circling, I trust any institution that leaves room for mercy more than the guys demanding punishment.

Da church can believe what it wants but da state still gotta punish real evil, and a guy who kills a kid dont deserve a nice cell n 3 meals. Pope should stick to da bible n let da courts handle justice.

A demand for punishment dressed up as moral clarity is still a demand for the state to kill, and the people selling it rarely ask who gets the benefit of that certainty.