In my next essay, I will explain what the bible has to say about capital punishment. This is because approximately 75% of Americans believe in the Christian holy book. However, there are many ways one may interpret the passages I presented so it is more important to describe what the Church has to say about capital punishment in modern times. The denomination of Christianity that I will be looking at is the Catholic Church.
Now, the U.S. is only 23.9% Catholic, however, many different sects of Christianity still look to the Catholic Church for interpretations of the bible. The Catholic Church has had many different opinions on the death penalty throughout the years. However, though widely debated, the Catholic Church does have an official statement on the death penalty. The Catechism of the Catholic Church section 2267 states, “Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against an unjust aggressor.” This means that if the court is sure that a person committed a crime, and that that person, if not killed, would continue to hurt others, then it would be morally acceptable to execute said person. Now, the Catholic Church has had many debates on changing this statement to completely banning the death penalty. However, regarding the U.S. this statement by the Catholic Church should already ban the death penalty throughout the country. Why? Because America has the capabilities of locking someone up and isolating them from society. This would disable them from “hurting others”. Now of course there are many examples of violence in prisons, however, prisons that hold people who have done very serious crimes have high-security. Little to no violence goes around in these types of prisons. If Catholics follow the Catholics Church’s teachings than a great deal of the citizens in the U.S. would be against capital punishment. However, this is not true because, understandably, many Catholics don’t know all the teachings of the Catholic Church. We want to bring to light these teachings in order to help shape people’s opinions on capital punishment.
Now, the U.S. is only 23.9% Catholic, however, many different sects of Christianity still look to the Catholic Church for interpretations of the bible. The Catholic Church has had many different opinions on the death penalty throughout the years. However, though widely debated, the Catholic Church does have an official statement on the death penalty. The Catechism of the Catholic Church section 2267 states, “Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against an unjust aggressor.” This means that if the court is sure that a person committed a crime, and that that person, if not killed, would continue to hurt others, then it would be morally acceptable to execute said person. Now, the Catholic Church has had many debates on changing this statement to completely banning the death penalty. However, regarding the U.S. this statement by the Catholic Church should already ban the death penalty throughout the country. Why? Because America has the capabilities of locking someone up and isolating them from society. This would disable them from “hurting others”. Now of course there are many examples of violence in prisons, however, prisons that hold people who have done very serious crimes have high-security. Little to no violence goes around in these types of prisons. If Catholics follow the Catholics Church’s teachings than a great deal of the citizens in the U.S. would be against capital punishment. However, this is not true because, understandably, many Catholics don’t know all the teachings of the Catholic Church. We want to bring to light these teachings in order to help shape people’s opinions on capital punishment.