{"id":8788,"date":"2014-10-30T15:48:00","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T15:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality-17506\/"},"modified":"2014-10-30T15:48:00","modified_gmt":"2014-10-30T15:48:00","slug":"philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/","title":{"rendered":"Philly archdiocese: RNS blogger ‘inventing own reality’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

<\/p>\n

Philadelphia, Pa., Oct 30, 2014 \/ 09:48 am (CNA<\/a>).- The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has shrugged off a recent blog post that sought to pit Pope Francis against Archbishop Charles J. Chaput on the death penalty.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\t\u201cSome blogs are like videogames; they invent their own reality,\u201d Kenneth Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese, told CNA Oct. 28.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\t\u201cArchbishop Chaput has been vocal and vigorous in opposing the death penalty for more than 40 years. That\u2019s a matter of public record.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tGavin\u2019s comments came in response to an Oct. 24 blog post on Religion News Service by writer Mark Silk.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tThe blog post, entitled, \u201cPope Francis clarifies Archbishop Chaput\u2019s confusion,\u201d focused on Pope Francis\u2019 recent call for the abolition of the death penalty.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tSilk claimed that \u201cWhat His Holiness has done is definitively reject the assertion of former Denver and current Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput,\u201d alluding to an alleged conversation between the archbishop and Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez.\u00a0 According to Silk, the archbishop reportedly advised Beauprez to pray about the matter in forming his views on it, telling him that Church doctrine is not anti-death penalty.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tGavin dismissed the Silk post as \u201cridiculous.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tCandidate Bob Beauprez is locked in a tight race with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.\u00a0 Ironically, Gavin said, Hickenlooper is already on record<\/a> thanking the archbishop for his past counsel against the death penalty.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tIn his blog post, Silk omitted comments that Gavin gave to members of the press who had inquired about the archbishop\u2019s stance: \u201cScripture and long Church teaching uphold the basic legitimacy of the death penalty. But the Church also teaches that in the developed world, the circumstances requiring the death penalty for the purposes of justice and public safety rarely exist. Therefore the death penalty should not be used.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tAs a result of this omission, Gavin said, the blog post misrepresented Archbishop Chaput by making it appear that he disagrees with the Pope on the death penalty, and portraying the Pope\u2019s comments as if they were directed at Archbishop Chaput as a response.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tIn reality, Gavin stated, the archbishop has been forceful for years in explaining Church teaching on the death penalty. In the blogosphere, said Gavin, \u201cinconvenient facts don\u2019t seem to matter.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tCatholic teaching on the death penalty is laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which explains, \u201cThe traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tHowever, it adds, if \u201cbloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect 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.\u201d
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tArchbishop Chaput, Gavin said, has written dozens of articles and spoken frequently against the death penalty for decades. \u00a0
\n\t\u00a0
\n\tIn 1997, in a column entitled \u201cThe True Road to Justice,\u201d the archbishop argued strongly against the death sentence for Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh.<\/p>\n

\t\u00a0In 2002, he released a statement<\/a> saying that in developed countries such as the U.S., the death penalty \u201cshould have no place in our public life.\u201d He also wrote on the death penalty in columns written in 2004<\/a> and 2005<\/a> for the Denver Catholic Register.<\/p>\n

\tIn 2012, Archbishop Chaput again raised the subject<\/a> of capital punishment. In his Sept. 10 weekly column for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he stressed that the death penalty does not effectively \u201cdeter crime, nor does it bring about true justice or closure for victims\u2019 families.
\n\t\u00a0
\n\t\u201cWhen we take a murderer's life we only add to the violence in an already violent culture, and we demean our own dignity in the process,\u201d he said.
\n\t\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Philadelphia, Pa., Oct 30, 2014 \/ 09:48 am (CNA<\/a>).- The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has shrugged off a recent blog post that sought to pit Pope Francis against Archbishop Charles J. Chaput on the death penalty.
\n\t 
\n\t“Some blogs are like videogames; they invent their own reality,” Kenneth Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese, told CNA Oct. 28.
\n\t 
\n\t“Archbishop Chaput has been vocal and vigorous in opposing the death penalty for more than 40 years. That’s a matter of public record.”
\n\t 
\n\tGavin’s comments came in response to an Oct. 24 blog post on Religion News Service by writer Mark Silk.
\n\t 
\n\tThe blog post, entitled, “Pope Francis clarifies Archbishop Chaput’s confusion,” focused on Pope Francis’ recent call for the abolition of the death penalty.
\n\t 
\n\tSilk claimed that “What His Holiness has done is definitively reject the assertion of former Denver and current Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput,” alluding to an alleged conversation between the archbishop and Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez.  According to Silk, the archbishop reportedly advised Beauprez to pray about the matter in forming his views on it, telling him that Church doctrine is not anti-death penalty.
\n\t 
\n\tGavin dismissed the Silk post as “ridiculous.”
\n\t 
\n\tCandidate Bob Beauprez is locked in a tight race with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.  Ironically, Gavin said, Hickenlooper is already on record<\/a> thanking the archbishop for his past counsel against the death penalty.
\n\t 
\n\tIn his blog post, Silk omitted comments that Gavin gave to members of the press who had inquired about the archbishop’s stance: “Scripture and long Church teaching uphold the basic legitimacy of the death penalty. But the Church also teaches that in the developed world, the circumstances requiring the death penalty for the purposes of justice and public safety rarely exist. Therefore the death penalty should not be used.”
\n\t 
\n\tAs a result of this omission, Gavin said, the blog post misrepresented Archbishop Chaput by making it appear that he disagrees with the Pope on the death penalty, and portraying the Pope’s comments as if they were directed at Archbishop Chaput as a response.
\n\t 
\n\tIn reality, Gavin stated, the archbishop has been forceful for years in explaining Church teaching on the death penalty. In the blogosphere, said Gavin, “inconvenient facts don’t seem to matter.”
\n\t 
\n\tCatholic teaching on the death penalty is laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which explains, “The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.”
\n\t 
\n\tHowever, it adds, if “bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect 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.”
\n\t 
\n\tArchbishop Chaput, Gavin said, has written dozens of articles and spoken frequently against the death penalty for decades.  
\n\t 
\n\tIn 1997, in a column entitled “The True Road to Justice,” the archbishop argued strongly against the death sentence for Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh.<\/p>\n

\t In 2002, he released a statement<\/a> saying that in developed countries such as the U.S., the death penalty “should have no place in our public life.” He also wrote on the death penalty in columns written in 2004<\/a> and 2005<\/a> for the Denver Catholic Register.<\/p>\n

\tIn 2012, Archbishop Chaput again raised the subject<\/a> of capital punishment. In his Sept. 10 weekly column for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he stressed that the death penalty does not effectively “deter crime, nor does it bring about true justice or closure for victims’ families.
\n\t 
\n\t“When we take a murderer’s life we only add to the violence in an already violent culture, and we demean our own dignity in the process,” he said.
\n\t <\/p>\n

\n<\/a>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-us"],"yoast_head":"\nPhilly archdiocese: RNS blogger 'inventing own reality'<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Philadelphia, Pa., Oct 30, 2014 \/ 09:48 am (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has shrugged off a recent blog post that sought to pit Pope Francis against Archbishop Charles J. Chaput on the death penalty.   “Some blogs are like videogames; they invent their own reality,” Kenneth Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese, told CNA Oct. 28.   “Archbishop Chaput has been vocal and vigorous in opposing the death penalty for more than 40 years. That’s a matter of public record.”   Gavin’s comments came in response to an Oct. 24 blog post on Religion News Service by writer Mark Silk.   The blog post, entitled, “Pope Francis clarifies Archbishop Chaput’s confusion,” focused on Pope Francis’ recent call for the abolition of the death penalty.   Silk claimed that “What His Holiness has done is definitively reject the assertion of former Denver and current Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput,” alluding to an alleged conversation between the archbishop and Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez.  According to Silk, the archbishop reportedly advised Beauprez to pray about the matter in forming his views on it, telling him that Church doctrine is not anti-death penalty.   Gavin dismissed the Silk post as “ridiculous.”   Candidate Bob Beauprez is locked in a tight race with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.  Ironically, Gavin said, Hickenlooper is already on record thanking the archbishop for his past counsel against the death penalty.   In his blog post, Silk omitted comments that Gavin gave to members of the press who had inquired about the archbishop’s stance: “Scripture and long Church teaching uphold the basic legitimacy of the death penalty. But the Church also teaches that in the developed world, the circumstances requiring the death penalty for the purposes of justice and public safety rarely exist. Therefore the death penalty should not be used.”   As a result of this omission, Gavin said, the blog post misrepresented Archbishop Chaput by making it appear that he disagrees with the Pope on the death penalty, and portraying the Pope’s comments as if they were directed at Archbishop Chaput as a response.   In reality, Gavin stated, the archbishop has been forceful for years in explaining Church teaching on the death penalty. In the blogosphere, said Gavin, “inconvenient facts don’t seem to matter.”   Catholic teaching on the death penalty is laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which explains, “The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.”   However, it adds, if “bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect 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.”   Archbishop Chaput, Gavin said, has written dozens of articles and spoken frequently against the death penalty for decades.     In 1997, in a column entitled “The True Road to Justice,” the archbishop argued strongly against the death sentence for Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh.  In 2002, he released a statement saying that in developed countries such as the U.S., the death penalty “should have no place in our public life.” He also wrote on the death penalty in columns written in 2004 and 2005 for the Denver Catholic Register. In 2012, Archbishop Chaput again raised the subject of capital punishment. In his Sept. 10 weekly column for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he stressed that the death penalty does not effectively “deter crime, nor does it bring about true justice or closure for victims’ families.   “When we take a murderer's life we only add to the violence in an already violent culture, and we demean our own dignity in the process,” he said.  \" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Philly archdiocese: RNS blogger 'inventing own reality'\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Philadelphia, Pa., Oct 30, 2014 \/ 09:48 am (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has shrugged off a recent blog post that sought to pit Pope Francis against Archbishop Charles J. 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That’s a matter of public record.”   Gavin’s comments came in response to an Oct. 24 blog post on Religion News Service by writer Mark Silk.   The blog post, entitled, “Pope Francis clarifies Archbishop Chaput’s confusion,” focused on Pope Francis’ recent call for the abolition of the death penalty.   Silk claimed that “What His Holiness has done is definitively reject the assertion of former Denver and current Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput,” alluding to an alleged conversation between the archbishop and Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez.  According to Silk, the archbishop reportedly advised Beauprez to pray about the matter in forming his views on it, telling him that Church doctrine is not anti-death penalty.   Gavin dismissed the Silk post as “ridiculous.”   Candidate Bob Beauprez is locked in a tight race with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.  Ironically, Gavin said, Hickenlooper is already on record thanking the archbishop for his past counsel against the death penalty.   In his blog post, Silk omitted comments that Gavin gave to members of the press who had inquired about the archbishop’s stance: “Scripture and long Church teaching uphold the basic legitimacy of the death penalty. But the Church also teaches that in the developed world, the circumstances requiring the death penalty for the purposes of justice and public safety rarely exist. Therefore the death penalty should not be used.”   As a result of this omission, Gavin said, the blog post misrepresented Archbishop Chaput by making it appear that he disagrees with the Pope on the death penalty, and portraying the Pope’s comments as if they were directed at Archbishop Chaput as a response.   In reality, Gavin stated, the archbishop has been forceful for years in explaining Church teaching on the death penalty. In the blogosphere, said Gavin, “inconvenient facts don’t seem to matter.”   Catholic teaching on the death penalty is laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which explains, “The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.”   However, it adds, if “bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect 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.”   Archbishop Chaput, Gavin said, has written dozens of articles and spoken frequently against the death penalty for decades.     In 1997, in a column entitled “The True Road to Justice,” the archbishop argued strongly against the death sentence for Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh.  In 2002, he released a statement saying that in developed countries such as the U.S., the death penalty “should have no place in our public life.” He also wrote on the death penalty in columns written in 2004 and 2005 for the Denver Catholic Register. In 2012, Archbishop Chaput again raised the subject of capital punishment. In his Sept. 10 weekly column for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he stressed that the death penalty does not effectively “deter crime, nor does it bring about true justice or closure for victims’ families.   “When we take a murderer's life we only add to the violence in an already violent culture, and we demean our own dignity in the process,” he said.  \" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-10-30T15:48:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Mark_Silk_Credit_Kerry_Burke_MTS_Photography_BC_CNA_10_29_14.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"CNA Daily News\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/\",\"name\":\"Philly archdiocese: RNS blogger 'inventing own reality'\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-10-30T15:48:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-10-30T15:48:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1\"},\"description\":\"Philadelphia, Pa., Oct 30, 2014 \/ 09:48 am (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has shrugged off a recent blog post that sought to pit Pope Francis against Archbishop Charles J. 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That’s a matter of public record.”   Gavin’s comments came in response to an Oct. 24 blog post on Religion News Service by writer Mark Silk.   The blog post, entitled, “Pope Francis clarifies Archbishop Chaput’s confusion,” focused on Pope Francis’ recent call for the abolition of the death penalty.   Silk claimed that “What His Holiness has done is definitively reject the assertion of former Denver and current Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput,” alluding to an alleged conversation between the archbishop and Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez.  According to Silk, the archbishop reportedly advised Beauprez to pray about the matter in forming his views on it, telling him that Church doctrine is not anti-death penalty.   Gavin dismissed the Silk post as “ridiculous.”   Candidate Bob Beauprez is locked in a tight race with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.  Ironically, Gavin said, Hickenlooper is already on record thanking the archbishop for his past counsel against the death penalty.   In his blog post, Silk omitted comments that Gavin gave to members of the press who had inquired about the archbishop’s stance: “Scripture and long Church teaching uphold the basic legitimacy of the death penalty. But the Church also teaches that in the developed world, the circumstances requiring the death penalty for the purposes of justice and public safety rarely exist. Therefore the death penalty should not be used.”   As a result of this omission, Gavin said, the blog post misrepresented Archbishop Chaput by making it appear that he disagrees with the Pope on the death penalty, and portraying the Pope’s comments as if they were directed at Archbishop Chaput as a response.   In reality, Gavin stated, the archbishop has been forceful for years in explaining Church teaching on the death penalty. In the blogosphere, said Gavin, “inconvenient facts don’t seem to matter.”   Catholic teaching on the death penalty is laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which explains, “The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.”   However, it adds, if “bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect 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.”   Archbishop Chaput, Gavin said, has written dozens of articles and spoken frequently against the death penalty for decades.     In 1997, in a column entitled “The True Road to Justice,” the archbishop argued strongly against the death sentence for Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh.  In 2002, he released a statement saying that in developed countries such as the U.S., the death penalty “should have no place in our public life.” He also wrote on the death penalty in columns written in 2004 and 2005 for the Denver Catholic Register. 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In his Sept. 10 weekly column for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he stressed that the death penalty does not effectively “deter crime, nor does it bring about true justice or closure for victims’ families.   “When we take a murderer's life we only add to the violence in an already violent culture, and we demean our own dignity in the process,” he said.  ","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Philly archdiocese: RNS blogger 'inventing own reality'","og_description":"Philadelphia, Pa., Oct 30, 2014 \/ 09:48 am (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has shrugged off a recent blog post that sought to pit Pope Francis against Archbishop Charles J. Chaput on the death penalty.   “Some blogs are like videogames; they invent their own reality,” Kenneth Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese, told CNA Oct. 28.   “Archbishop Chaput has been vocal and vigorous in opposing the death penalty for more than 40 years. That’s a matter of public record.”   Gavin’s comments came in response to an Oct. 24 blog post on Religion News Service by writer Mark Silk.   The blog post, entitled, “Pope Francis clarifies Archbishop Chaput’s confusion,” focused on Pope Francis’ recent call for the abolition of the death penalty.   Silk claimed that “What His Holiness has done is definitively reject the assertion of former Denver and current Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput,” alluding to an alleged conversation between the archbishop and Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez.  According to Silk, the archbishop reportedly advised Beauprez to pray about the matter in forming his views on it, telling him that Church doctrine is not anti-death penalty.   Gavin dismissed the Silk post as “ridiculous.”   Candidate Bob Beauprez is locked in a tight race with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.  Ironically, Gavin said, Hickenlooper is already on record thanking the archbishop for his past counsel against the death penalty.   In his blog post, Silk omitted comments that Gavin gave to members of the press who had inquired about the archbishop’s stance: “Scripture and long Church teaching uphold the basic legitimacy of the death penalty. But the Church also teaches that in the developed world, the circumstances requiring the death penalty for the purposes of justice and public safety rarely exist. Therefore the death penalty should not be used.”   As a result of this omission, Gavin said, the blog post misrepresented Archbishop Chaput by making it appear that he disagrees with the Pope on the death penalty, and portraying the Pope’s comments as if they were directed at Archbishop Chaput as a response.   In reality, Gavin stated, the archbishop has been forceful for years in explaining Church teaching on the death penalty. In the blogosphere, said Gavin, “inconvenient facts don’t seem to matter.”   Catholic teaching on the death penalty is laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which explains, “The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.”   However, it adds, if “bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect 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.”   Archbishop Chaput, Gavin said, has written dozens of articles and spoken frequently against the death penalty for decades.     In 1997, in a column entitled “The True Road to Justice,” the archbishop argued strongly against the death sentence for Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh.  In 2002, he released a statement saying that in developed countries such as the U.S., the death penalty “should have no place in our public life.” He also wrote on the death penalty in columns written in 2004 and 2005 for the Denver Catholic Register. In 2012, Archbishop Chaput again raised the subject of capital punishment. In his Sept. 10 weekly column for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he stressed that the death penalty does not effectively “deter crime, nor does it bring about true justice or closure for victims’ families.   “When we take a murderer's life we only add to the violence in an already violent culture, and we demean our own dignity in the process,” he said.  ","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/","og_site_name":"Catholic News","article_published_time":"2014-10-30T15:48:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/images\/size340\/Mark_Silk_Credit_Kerry_Burke_MTS_Photography_BC_CNA_10_29_14.jpg"}],"author":"CNA Daily News","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"CNA Daily News","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/","name":"Philly archdiocese: RNS blogger 'inventing own reality'","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-10-30T15:48:00+00:00","dateModified":"2014-10-30T15:48:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1"},"description":"Philadelphia, Pa., Oct 30, 2014 \/ 09:48 am (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Philadelphia has shrugged off a recent blog post that sought to pit Pope Francis against Archbishop Charles J. Chaput on the death penalty.   “Some blogs are like videogames; they invent their own reality,” Kenneth Gavin, a spokesman for the archdiocese, told CNA Oct. 28.   “Archbishop Chaput has been vocal and vigorous in opposing the death penalty for more than 40 years. That’s a matter of public record.”   Gavin’s comments came in response to an Oct. 24 blog post on Religion News Service by writer Mark Silk.   The blog post, entitled, “Pope Francis clarifies Archbishop Chaput’s confusion,” focused on Pope Francis’ recent call for the abolition of the death penalty.   Silk claimed that “What His Holiness has done is definitively reject the assertion of former Denver and current Philadelphia Archbishop Charles Chaput,” alluding to an alleged conversation between the archbishop and Colorado gubernatorial candidate Bob Beauprez.  According to Silk, the archbishop reportedly advised Beauprez to pray about the matter in forming his views on it, telling him that Church doctrine is not anti-death penalty.   Gavin dismissed the Silk post as “ridiculous.”   Candidate Bob Beauprez is locked in a tight race with Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper.  Ironically, Gavin said, Hickenlooper is already on record thanking the archbishop for his past counsel against the death penalty.   In his blog post, Silk omitted comments that Gavin gave to members of the press who had inquired about the archbishop’s stance: “Scripture and long Church teaching uphold the basic legitimacy of the death penalty. But the Church also teaches that in the developed world, the circumstances requiring the death penalty for the purposes of justice and public safety rarely exist. Therefore the death penalty should not be used.”   As a result of this omission, Gavin said, the blog post misrepresented Archbishop Chaput by making it appear that he disagrees with the Pope on the death penalty, and portraying the Pope’s comments as if they were directed at Archbishop Chaput as a response.   In reality, Gavin stated, the archbishop has been forceful for years in explaining Church teaching on the death penalty. In the blogosphere, said Gavin, “inconvenient facts don’t seem to matter.”   Catholic teaching on the death penalty is laid out in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which explains, “The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor.”   However, it adds, if “bloodless means are sufficient to defend against the aggressor and to protect 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.”   Archbishop Chaput, Gavin said, has written dozens of articles and spoken frequently against the death penalty for decades.     In 1997, in a column entitled “The True Road to Justice,” the archbishop argued strongly against the death sentence for Oklahoma City bomber, Timothy McVeigh.  In 2002, he released a statement saying that in developed countries such as the U.S., the death penalty “should have no place in our public life.” He also wrote on the death penalty in columns written in 2004 and 2005 for the Denver Catholic Register. In 2012, Archbishop Chaput again raised the subject of capital punishment. In his Sept. 10 weekly column for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, he stressed that the death penalty does not effectively “deter crime, nor does it bring about true justice or closure for victims’ families.   “When we take a murderer's life we only add to the violence in an already violent culture, and we demean our own dignity in the process,” he said.  ","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/2014\/10\/philly-archdiocese-rns-blogger-inventing-own-reality\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Philly archdiocese: RNS blogger ‘inventing own reality’"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/","name":"Catholic News","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/35d4bd7addc580050842c844a11575f1","name":"CNA Daily News","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8f1180c7dca7995d4a997aac72a3a88a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"CNA Daily News"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/author\/cna-daily-news\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8788","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8788"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8788\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8788"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8788"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/catholicnews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8788"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}