Death Penalty 'Unnecessary and Avoidable'?

Oh please. I cringe to read this. The man they executed tortured a little girl in front of her parents then drowned them all in a creek. Where was the mercy when that little girl was being tortured? And her parents were tortured, too, before her eyes. Let God deal with the criminal as He sees fit. He has given us the common sense and wherewithal to protect ourselves and our families from killers. The command of Our Lord not to judge does not mean that we must suspend our reason and discernment when it comes to safety. It is important to be aware of what saints and popes wrote about of the death penalty. Even St. John Paul II, who hated the death penalty, said it could be used in some extreme cases. From Wikipedia:

Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) suggested that the 1995 assessment of the contemporary situation advanced by John Paul II was not necessarily binding on the Catholic faithful in regard to capital punishment. In 2004, Ratzinger wrote:

if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.^[27]

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I hope that the people distressed by the execution of a criminal also protest against abortion. There is no comparison between protecting society by taking the life of a killer and shedding the blood of an unborn innocent child. There is no comparison between the issues. Sadly, some of those condemning the execution of a horrendous criminal are the same who will not say a word about pro-abortion politicians or Catholic statues and churches being burned and desecrated. In the past, the Church permitted capital punishment as a form of self-defense. The civil authorities had the duty to protect innocent people from savage murderers. And I am aware of what Pope Francis has said but even a pope cannot just erase centuries of tradition. Share