Catholics pining for an end to the death penalty have put almost all eggs in the \u2018life sentence\u2019 basket. \u00a0That\u2019s because we\u2019re not prepared to say \u2018just let the criminal go, and if he kills, we\u2019ll try again.\u2019 \u00a0That was common among the liberal attitudes of the 70s, because the idea was that there were not criminals, only victims of cruel and unjust, oppressive societies. \u00a0And those who were part of those unjust societies? \u00a0Well, it was never said, but I always got the impression that there was a sort of \u2018serves them right\u2019 attitude whenever an innocent was killed by a released prisoner for whom rehab hadn\u2019t taken hold.<\/p>\n
The Death Penalty, in the end, is part of the realization the Church had ages ago that we not only live in a fallen world, but are called to be in the fallen world. \u00a0Unlike the Amish or monastic communities, most are called to be in this fallen world a light to the world. \u00a0Salt of the earth and all. \u00a0Because of this, our heavenward focus had to be tempered with concessions to living in light of the way it is.<\/p>\n
Hence, Just War. \u00a0Hence, the Death Penalty. \u00a0Hence putting an end to that idealized Church of Acts 2, where all share and none are in need. \u00a0Some Catholics will have millions. \u00a0Some will starve. \u00a0And like the Death Penalty and Just War, this was simply a fact of life. \u00a0We could try to do it in light of endless layers of Christian teaching. \u00a0But we had to accept the realities.<\/p>\n
Now we have the Church, in light of endless assaults by the post-Christian Left, and to be fair, some left over barbs from Protestants and non-Catholic Christians, trying to revise its old teachings to conform to the expectations of the post-modern world. \u00a0Just War is almost \u2013 almost mind you \u2013 a thing of the past. \u00a0Likewise, the \u00a0Death Penalty has been under assault for decades. <\/p>\n
But now Pope Francis throws in the gauntlet against not just executing prisoners, but imprisoning them for life. \u00a0In fairness, advocates of the Death Penalty have used this very argument. \u00a0How is imprisoning a person for life, with no hope of escape but death, any different than executing them? \u00a0For Catholic legalists, of course, there is a world of difference. \u00a0In that particular branch of the Church, you can indirectly cause the death of millions, as long as you don\u2019t directly cause the death of one guilty person to save them. <\/p>\n
But for most, that\u2019s not the way it should be. \u00a0Something about throwing someone into prison for life isn\u2019t much better than executing them. \u00a0Assuming the generally implicit universalism in the modern Church, there is no concern for saving the prisoner\u2019s soul. So no real reason to execute, and yet how to validate keeping them in prison for life?<\/p>\n