Changes

==== Catechism of the Catholic Church====

==== Catechism of the Catholic Church====

The [[Catholic Church]] has always supported capital punishment in certain circumstances that range from combating heresy to saving lives of potential victims of crime.  Traditionally, capital punishment has been endorsed by the Church for reasons beyond preventing additional wrongdoing by the same criminal.   

The [[Catholic Church]] has always supported capital punishment in certain circumstances that range from combating heresy to saving lives of potential victims of crime.  Traditionally, capital punishment has been endorsed by the Church for reasons beyond preventing additional wrongdoing by the same criminal.

 

 

:It is certain from Scripture that civil authorities may lawfully put malefactors to death.  ...  Christian dispensation made no essential change [to the Old Testament endorsement of the death penalty], as St. Paul expressly says .... [citing Romans 13:4].  Among the errors of the Waldenses condemned by the Church in the early thirteenth century was the proposition that denied the lawfulness of capital punishment (Argentre, ''Collectio de Novis Erroribus'', I, 86).  St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-74) defends capital punishment on the grounds of the common good. ...  If even with capital punishment crime abounds, no lesser penalty will suffice.  The practice question remains of how effective a deterrent capital punishment is in some modern states, when rarely used or only after long delays.  In principle, however, it is morally licit because in the most serious crimes the claims of retribution and deterrence are so demanding that the corrective value of punishment must, if necessary, be sacrificed.

In the 1990s, however, some within the Church have advocated limiting the use of capital punishment to situations where there is no other practical way of restraining the particular criminal.  This new position found expression without prior discussion or reconciliation with traditional Church doctrine as follows:

In the 1990s, however, some within the Church have advocated limiting the use of capital punishment to situations where there is no other practical way of restraining the particular criminal.  This new position found expression without prior discussion or reconciliation with traditional Church doctrine as follows: