{"id":112665,"date":"2019-07-19T00:07:15","date_gmt":"2019-07-19T07:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?p=112665"},"modified":"2019-07-03T15:21:22","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T22:21:22","slug":"where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html","title":{"rendered":"Where Peter Is<\/i> on the Death Penalty"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

They write:<\/p>\n

In June 17th, Cardinal Dolan posted the following on Twitter:<\/p>\n

\"Cardinal<\/p>\n

Link: https:\/\/twitter.com\/CardinalDolan\/status\/1140621061211529217<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This tweet (as accurate as it is) prompted a wild discussion in social media, since there are many Catholics who are unwilling to assent to the recent Catechetical revision on the Death Penalty, from which this tweet flows.<\/p>\n

In this context, Dr. Edward Peters has chimed in with this article<\/a>, where he claims the Cardinal\u2019s tweet to be ill-advised, because it might contradict perennial Church teaching on the death penalty.<\/p>\n

First of all, I submit that Dr. Peters\u2019 interpretation of the good Cardinal\u2019s tweet misses the mark. At first, Dr. Peters correctly asserts that Pope Francis used the term \u201cinadmissible\u201d to sidestep the \u201cintrinsically evil\u201d terminology that could be problematic on account of previous magisterial formulations.<\/p>\n

But then, Dr. Peters\u2019 incorrectly postulates that Card. Dolan\u2019s tweet stumbles on the \u201cintrinsically evil\u201d terminology by claiming that he tweeted \u201cin terms well-known to tradition,\u201d and \u201cplainly stated that the death penalty is immoral.\u201d I must emphasize that Dr. Peters is imprecise in equivocating \u201cimmoral\u201d with \u201cintrinsically evil,\u201d since an act may be immoral without being intrinsically evil (for example, even those who believe the death penalty is licit would agree that the application of the death penalty in the case of St. Joan of Arc was immoral.)<\/p>\n

Also, Dr. Peters assumes that Cardinal Dolan is tweeting with the intent of discussing tradition. By doing so, he ignores the wider context of the discussion, in which Dolan\u2019s tweet rests. On one hand, as Dr. Peters notes, this tweet comes in the wake of a Catechetical revision from the Pope, where the Holy Father has clarified that the death penalty was not immoral at the time the Church advocated for its liceity (see the CDF\u2019s clarification<\/a> and this video<\/a>). So, if Dolan is referring to this revision, he could not be propose something that is clearly not what the revision intended.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Cardinal Dolan is clearly referring to the problem of \u201cloopholes.\u201d In the previous Catechetical formulation, Pope St. John Paul II (who was a champion of death penalty abolition) wrote \u2014 in order to avoid the magisterial firestorm Dr. Peters so fears \u2014 that the situations where death penalty was licit were \u201crare, practically non-existent.<\/em>\u201d But many Catholics of a certain ideological bent, primarily in the United States, kept fighting for the death penalty, using the \u201cpractically non-existent<\/em>\u201d language as a loophole for its admissibility, in order to leave the status quo<\/em> unchallenged.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Dolan correctly notes that the current Catechetical revision has closed that loophole. This is the context of Cardinal Dolan\u2019s tweet, and what he meant is easily comprehensible to anyone who is familiar with this debate. Asking for more nuance and details from a tweet is not fair, given the limitations of this social media platform. But any reasonable person can understand from where Dolan was coming from.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Dr. Peters equivocates the cardinal\u2019s clear meaning to employ a tactic, commonly used by those who disagree with Francis on this issue, of trying to reframe the debate according to their own terms (the \u201cintrinsically evil\u201d debate) in order to be able to create more solid ground for themselves and to piggy-back on previous popes, when the debate was on the morality of the death penalty in principle, but on the morality of its application in specific contexts.<\/p>\n

\n

My main objection to Dr. Peters\u2019 article is that it perfectly encapsulates the mindset at the root of the resistance to Francis\u2019 pontificate. Brian Killian has brought this phenomenon to our attention in this very blog earlier this week<\/a>: papal critics assume that when they are in disagreement with the Holy Father, it is the Pope, and not them, who is wrong. In fact, they will often hold the Pope\u2019s wrongness as a self-evident truth and build up their argument from there. Dr. Peters shows a scholarly, academic version of this problem.<\/p>\n

Dr. Peters cites \u201cnumerous studies\u201d arguing that the moral acceptability of the death penalty has been infallibly taught. He will then proceed to pontificate:<\/p>\n

\n

Therefore, Church leaders contradicting that position must, simply must, deal with the possibility that infallibility is in play here, and, at a minimum, they should refrain from unnuanced declarations that might, in the end, be shown as \u201copposed to the doctrine of the Catholic Church\u201d (\u2026) I am saying that declaring the [death penalty] as immoral per se puts one at risk of asserting something that many qualified scholars argue powerfully is opposed to infallible Church teaching, and possibly even to contradicting something divinely revealed. The real possibility of so offending the truth should, I think, trigger more respectful caution by those in positions of authority when speaking on these matters.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This is a complete inversion of the proper roles. It is not Church leaders (whom Dr. Peters later identifies as \u201cpopes and bishops\u201d) that should be cautious of teaching things that \u201cmany qualified scholars\u201d argue are divinely revealed or infallible. Rather, it is the scholars who should be cautious of teaching things contrary to what the popes and bishops present as Church teaching.<\/p>\n

I do not, for the life of me, understand the Right Wing American Catholic struggle to fight the Church\u2019s development of doctrine on the death penalty.\u00a0 What possesses people with such an intense need to<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Kill people who do not need to be killed.<\/li>\n
  2. Kill innocent people<\/a> in order to go on killing people who do not need to be killed.<\/li>\n
  3. Turn themselves into people intensely dedicated to killing innocent people in order to kill people who do not need to be killed.<\/li>\n
  4. Turn themselves into dedicated enemies of the Church\u2019s Magisterium in order to turn themselves into people intensely dedicated to killing innocent people in order to kill people who do not need to be killed.<\/li>\n
  5. Turn themselves into passionate evangelists for turning other<\/em> people into dedicated enemies of the Church\u2019s Magisterium in order to turn those people into people intensely dedicated to killing innocent people in order to kill people who do not need to be killed.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    For what?<\/p>\n

    I regard it as the mystery of evil.<\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    They write: In June 17th, Cardinal Dolan posted the following on Twitter: Link: https:\/\/twitter.com\/CardinalDolan\/status\/1140621061211529217 This tweet (as accurate as it is) prompted a wild discussion in social media, since there are many Catholics who are unwilling to assent to the recent Catechetical revision on the Death Penalty, from which this tweet flows. In this context, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[278],"class_list":["post-112665","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abolish-the-death-penalty"],"yoast_head":"\nWhere Peter Is on the Death Penalty<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"They write: In June 17th, Cardinal Dolan posted the following on Twitter: Link: https:\/\/twitter.com\/CardinalDolan\/status\/1140621061211529217 This tweet\" \/>\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\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Where Peter Is on the Death Penalty\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"They write: In June 17th, Cardinal Dolan posted the following on Twitter: Link: https:\/\/twitter.com\/CardinalDolan\/status\/1140621061211529217 This tweet\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-07-19T07:07:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2019-07-03T22:21:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wherepeteris.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Screen-Shot-2019-06-21-at-11.44.33-AM.png?resize=588%2C297&ssl=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Mark Shea\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html\",\"name\":\"Where Peter Is on the Death Penalty\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2019-07-19T07:07:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2019-07-03T22:21:22+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\"},\"description\":\"They write: In June 17th, Cardinal Dolan posted the following on Twitter: Link: https:\/\/twitter.com\/CardinalDolan\/status\/1140621061211529217 This tweet\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Where Peter Is on the Death Penalty\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/\",\"name\":\"Catholic and Enjoying It!\",\"description\":\"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5\",\"name\":\"Mark Shea\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Mark Shea\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Where Peter Is on the Death Penalty","description":"They write: In June 17th, Cardinal Dolan posted the following on Twitter: Link: https:\/\/twitter.com\/CardinalDolan\/status\/1140621061211529217 This tweet","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\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Where Peter Is on the Death Penalty","og_description":"They write: In June 17th, Cardinal Dolan posted the following on Twitter: Link: https:\/\/twitter.com\/CardinalDolan\/status\/1140621061211529217 This tweet","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html","og_site_name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","article_published_time":"2019-07-19T07:07:15+00:00","article_modified_time":"2019-07-03T22:21:22+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wherepeteris.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/Screen-Shot-2019-06-21-at-11.44.33-AM.png?resize=588%2C297&ssl=1"}],"author":"Mark Shea","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Mark Shea","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html","name":"Where Peter Is on the Death Penalty","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website"},"datePublished":"2019-07-19T07:07:15+00:00","dateModified":"2019-07-03T22:21:22+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5"},"description":"They write: In June 17th, Cardinal Dolan posted the following on Twitter: Link: https:\/\/twitter.com\/CardinalDolan\/status\/1140621061211529217 This tweet","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/2019\/07\/where-peter-is-on-the-death-penalty.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Where Peter Is on the Death Penalty"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/","name":"Catholic and Enjoying It!","description":"Mark Shea's Blog: So That No Thought of Mine, No Matter How Stupid, Should Ever Go Unpublished Again!","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/c1a9ac1e557d3c626974fd6692818ad5","name":"Mark Shea","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f287911f45adc932ad24ddbae3597ed5?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Mark Shea"},"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/author\/markshea"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112665","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=112665"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/112665\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=112665"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=112665"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markshea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=112665"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}