#Early church

#Medieval period

#Reformation era to mid-20th century

#Late 20th-century to today

For this reason the traditional teaching of the Church has acknowledged as well-founded the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty. [...]

 

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, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

#Summary

Early church

Medieval period

Reformation era to mid-20th century

Late 20th-century to today

For this reason the traditional teaching of the Church has acknowledged as well-founded the right and duty of legitimate public authority to punish malefactors by means of penalties commensurate with the gravity of the crime, not excluding, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty. [...]

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, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

Summary

This has culminated in the 2018 revision to §2267 of the Catechism, which calls the death penalty "inadmissible" but uses language that suggests that support for abolition is at least partially based on the existence of "more effective systems of detention," and does not explicitly state that capital punishment is inherently immoral.

Through the years, the Catholic Church has consistently taught that the State legitimately holds the power of capital punishment, though its support for implementation of the practice has varied. In recent decades, limiting and abolishing the practice has become a point of emphasis. Some have contended that this represents a reversal of church doctrine, but others argue instead that it is a merely a development or "prudential judgment." Regardless, the practice has never been explicitly condemned as inherently immoral by an official publication of the Church, not to mention an ex cathedra statement.

This has culminated in the 2018 revision to §2267 of the Catechism, which calls the death penalty "inadmissible" but uses language that suggests that support for abolition is at least partially based on the existence of "more effective systems of detention," and does not explicitly state that capital punishment is inherently immoral. Additional explanation from the Vatican on this change is available in its Letter to the Bishops; it explicitly calls the change a "development of doctrine that is not in contradiction with the prior teachings of the Magisterium."

Through the years, the Catholic Church has consistently taught that the State legitimately holds the power of capital punishment, though its support for implementation of the practice has varied. In recent decades, limiting and abolishing the practice has become a point of emphasis. Some have contended that this represents a reversal of church doctrine, but the Vatican and others contend that it is a merely a development in doctrine. Regardless, the practice has never been explicitly condemned as inherently immoral by an official publication of the Church, not to mention an ex cathedra statement.

Feser and Bessette cite a number of examples, including Ambrose (Letter 90, to Studius), Chrysostom (Homilies on the Statues, 6), Augustine (City of God 1.21), and Jerome (Commentary on Jeremiah, Book 4, on 22:3). Also significant is the writing of Pope Innocent I, who refused to condemn Christian civil authorities who carried out the penalty:

Some opposed the death penalty more intensely, like Tertullian, but even he, say Feser and Bessette, did not oppose it in principle, but rather only that Christians should not participate in it (De Idolatria 19). (Incidentally, in the same work, Tertullian also taught that Christians should not be school teachers).

The "Roman Catechism" of the Council of Trent addresses this issue in the context of Ten Commandments, and says:

In the 19th and 20th centuries, popes exercising civil authority did not oppose the practice. Giovanni Battista Bugatti was the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1865, and put hundreds to death. Regarding more recent times, Avery Dulles writes:

The Vatican City State from 1929 until 1969 had a penal code that included the death penalty for anyone who might attempt to assassinate the pope ("Catholicism and Capital Punishment")

At least two encyclicals of this period support the legitimacy of the practice, Pastoralis Officii (1891) and Casti Connubii (1930), and Pius XII in several addresses in the 1950s supports it, perhaps most famously saying:

In recent years, two popes have made statements regarding capital punishment that seem, to some, to indicate a shift in the Church's view on capital punishment. Feser and Bessette describe three positions in an ongoing debate in Catholicism: is it a reversal of traditional Catholic doctrine, a development of doctrine, or a prudential judgment of doctrine? The different sides of this debate disagree on the strength of tradition outlined above (can it be contradicted by a pope?), and on the interpretation of the teachings of popes John Paul II and Francis.

Several significant landmarks of this period occur during John Paul II's papacy – the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992, the encyclical Evangelium Vitae in 1995, and the updated Catechism published in 1997.

During the papacy of Benedict XVI, the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was issued (2005). It follows the 1997 catechism, and cites the "very rare, if not practically nonexistent" language of Evangelium Vitae, but again does not call the practice illegitimate. Also in 2005, the USCCB published A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death, reiterating its call for the abolition of capital punishment in the United States.

Feser and Bessette cite a number of examples, including Ambrose (Letter 90 / 25, to Studius), Chrysostom (Homilies on the Statues, 6), Augustine (City of God 1.21), and Jerome (Commentary on Jeremiah, Book 4, on 22:3). Also significant is the writing of Pope Innocent I, who refused to condemn Christian civil authorities who carried out the penalty:

Some opposed the death penalty more intensely, like Tertullian, but even he, say Feser and Bessette, did not oppose it in principle, but rather only that Christians should not participate in it (De Idolatria 19). (Incidentally, in the same work, Tertullian also taught that Christians should not be school teachers).

The "Roman Catechism" of the Council of Trent addresses this issue in the context of Ten Commandments, and says:

In the 19th and 20th centuries, popes exercising civil authority did not oppose the practice. Giovanni Battista Bugatti was the official executioner for the Papal States from 1796 to 1865, and put hundreds to death. Regarding more recent times, Cardinal Avery Dulles writes:

The Vatican City State from 1929 until 1969 had a penal code that included the death penalty for anyone who might attempt to assassinate the pope ("Catholicism and Capital Punishment")

At least two encyclicals of this period support the legitimacy of the practice, Pastoralis Officii (1891) and Casti Connubii (1930), and Pius XII in several addresses in the 1950s supports it, perhaps most famously saying:

In the latter half of the 20th century, movement against capital punishment became more pronounced around the world, and leading Catholics expressed their opposition as well. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops called for abolition in 1974, for example, and respected Franciscan Gino Concetti wrote against the penalty in 1977.

More recently, two popes in particular – John Paul II and Francis I – have made statements regarding capital punishment that seem, to some, to indicate a shift in the Church's view on capital punishment. Feser and Bessette describe three positions in an ongoing debate in Catholicism: is it a reversal of traditional Catholic doctrine, a development of doctrine, or a prudential judgment of doctrine? The different sides of this debate disagree on the strength of tradition outlined above (can it be contradicted by a pope?), and on the interpretation of the teachings of popes John Paul II and Francis.

Several significant landmarks of this period occur during John Paul II's papacy – the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 1992, the encyclical Evangelium Vitae in 1995, and the updated Catechism published in 1997.

During the papacy of Benedict XVI, the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was issued (2005). It follows the 1997 catechism, and cites the "very rare, if not practically nonexistent" language of Evangelium Vitae, but again does not call the practice illegitimate. Also in 2005, the USCCB published A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death, reiterating its call for the abolition of capital punishment in the United States, and in 2009, a synod of African bishops supported universal abolition.