Prayer

For those of us whose apostolate is within the world, the prayerful power and contemplative intercessions of the religious has our back, for they are a mighty arm of the Church and their prayer is one of the sharpest swords of the Word, now as it was centuries ago, when St. Teresa of Avila wrote these words: "I think we should act as people do when, in time of war, the enemy has overrun the country and the king finds himself hard pressed. He retires into a strongly fortified town from whence he sometimes makes a sortie. The small company with him in the citadel, being picked men, are better than a large army of cowardly soldiers; thus they often come off victors, they are not vanquished for there is no traitor in their ranks and famine alone can conquer them. No famine can force us to surrender--it may kill us--it cannot vanquish us! But why have I told you this? To teach you, my sisters, that we must ask God to grant that, of all the good Christians in this fort, none may desert to the enemy, that no traitor may be found here, and that the captains of this castle, or city--that is, the preachers and theologians--may be proficient in the way of our Lord. Since most of these are religious, you must pray that they may advance in perfection and may follow their vocation more perfectly. This is very necessary, for, as I said, it is the arm of the Church and not of the State which much defend us now. We, being women, can fight for our King in neither way: Let us, then, strive so to live that our prayers may avail to help these servants of God who have laboured hard to arm themselves with learning and virtue with which to help their Sovereign." The Way of Perfection, [1565]. (1997). Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books and Publishers. (pp. 16-17)

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The Church

760 Christians of the first centuries said, "The world was created for the sake of the Church." God created the world for the sake of communion with his divine life, a communion brought about by the "convocation" of men in Christ, and this "convocation" is the Church. The Church is the goal of all things, and God permitted such painful upheavals as the angels' fall and man's sin only as occasions and means for displaying all the power of his arm and the whole measure of the love he wanted to give the world.

Just as God's will is creation and is called "the world," so his intention is the salvation of men, and is called "the Church." (Catechism of the Catholic Church, #760)

Capital Punishment

Excerpts from the Lampstand book: Capital Punishment & Catholic Social Teaching: A Tradition of Support

Before the excerpts from the book, there have been recent developments in the Church regarding capital punishment, which we addressed in two blog postings:

http://catholiceye.wordpress.com/2011/12/05/capital-punishment-developments/

and http://catholiceye.wordpress.com/2011/12/06/capital-punishment-development-ii/

Now, the excerpts.

This book is a defense of the scriptural and traditional Catholic position of support for capital punishment as expressed in the two universal catechisms, The Catechism of the Council of Trent, published by Pope Pius V in 1566, and The Catechism of the Catholic Church, published by Pope John Paul II in 1992 & 1997 (First & Second Edition), in response to calls for its abolition.

Based on scripture and tradition, calls for abolition are premature, though the call has generated a renewed focus on not only the magisterial history of this most ancient of teachings, but also its theological resonance within the expression of that teaching by the Fathers of the Church--ancient and modern--who most deeply reflected on it. (p. 9)

One of the most important aspects in ensuring capital punishment remains an option for protecting the innocent is that it is a clear response to evil and it is vitally important that our Church remain committed to confronting and fighting evil directly; because ultimately, the constancy of the doctrine of the Church informs and animates its constancy in fighting evil and a central aspect of fighting evil is saving the souls of those imprisoned by it.

It is constancy that teaches and binds, it is the constancy of God, the Creator of Covenants; for what can the father of lies and a murderer from the beginning teach about constancy of truth. (p. 14)

The protection of life is the central animating core of the Catholic Church and while that principle is clearly understood in relation to the prohibition against abortion and euthanasia, it has, in our time, become confused in relation to the Church's support for Just War and the juridical use of capital punishment...

Pope John Paul II stated that if recourse to capital punishment is no longer necessary to protect the innocent--a huge if that does not yet exist--it may be abolished.

That papal support forms the foundation for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) call to abolish capital punishment in the United States, and consequently, much of the intellectual and spiritual fuel for abolition comes from the USCCB work over many years, culminating in their 2005 Statement, The Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death....

The statements made by Pope John Paul II and supported by Pope Benedict XVI, who called upon all Catholics to approach capital punishment with extreme caution and care for the offender, remind us that if there are any means other than taking life, in which we can protect the life of the innocent from the aggressor, we should use them.

The most influential statement was made by Pope John Paul II (1999), where he said:

..."Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 27). I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary." (Homily, St. Louis, January 27, 1999, #5)

Regarding "society has the means of protecting itself", the situation in the United States where our legal system guarantees right of visitation and communication in even the most secure confinement--as in a super-max prison or on death row, the aggressor still has the capacity to reach out and harm the innocent, whether through the possession of contraband cell phones, information transmitted through attorneys, guards, and visitors--and it is in this context that criminal justice professionals require the continued option of capital punishment; and it is from this perspective of still being able to threaten the innocent, that the magisterium of the Catholic Church, expressed through the centuries, continues to support capital punishment....

If the system of confinement in the United States can advance to the point where the aggressor is confined so completely that communication is blocked by any means with the outside world, through outside contact by contraband cell phones, through guards, family, priests, or attorneys--all capable of being innocently manipulated or co-opted--and if the possibility of a future legislative change of current lifetime sentences resulting in release, then a truly bloodless means of protecting the innocent from the aggressor might have been reached and abolition can perhaps be then fruitfully discussed....

Avery Cardinal Dulles (2004) made an important point regarding reversing the traditional support of the Church for capital punishment:

"The reversal of a doctrine as well established as the legitimacy of capital punishment would raise serious problems regarding the credibility of the magisterium. Consistency with scripture and long-standing Catholic tradition is important for the grounding of many current teachings of the Catholic Church; for example, those regarding abortion, contraception, the permanence of marriage, and the ineligibility of women for priestly ordination. If the tradition on capital punishment had been reversed, serious questions would be raised regarding other doctrines." (Catholic Teaching on the Death Penalty. In E.C. Owens, J.D. Carlson & E.P. Elshtain (Eds.) Religion and the Death Penalty, (p. 26)

...It is evil which must concern us in addressing crime, and we must recognize that evil rarely reforms, but most criminals can and will, given a reason and shown the way, as St. Thomas Aquinas taught:

"When, however, they fall into very great wickedness, and become incurable, we ought no longer to show them friendliness. It is for this reason that both Divine and human laws command such like sinners to be put to death, because there is greater likelihood of their harming others than of their mending their ways. Nevertheless the judge puts this into effect, not out of hatred for the sinners, but out of the love of charity, by reason of which he prefers the public good to the life of the individual. Moreover the death inflicted by the judge profits the sinner, if he be converted, unto the expiation of his crime; and, if he be not converted, it profits so as to put an end to the sin, because the sinner is thus deprived of the power to sin any more." (Summa Theologica, Ques. 25, Article 6, reply to objection 2)

The most powerful example of "the death inflicted by the judge profits the sinner" is that of Dismas, the Good Thief, who established the eternal model of the efficacy of capital punishment to call forth deep and true penance, which Christ, in the open confessional of Golgotha, rendered forgiveness and elevation to sainthood.

(Capital Punishment and Catholic Social Teaching: A Tradition of Support, (pp. 17-22) Available free with Lampstand membership or from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Capital-Punishment-Catholic-Social-Teaching/dp/0979167078/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255369882&sr=8-4

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As the Church struggles to reclaim the high moral authority degraded by the filth of the sexual abuse crisis, and clarify its recently ambiguous positions on just war and capital punishment; the words of Peter can provide some light.

In the Holy Father's recent book, Light of the World: The Pope, the Church, and the Signs of the Times, Pope Benedict XVI, responding to a question about the Church's dealing with the sexual abuse crisis, said:

"The Archbishop of Dublin told me something very interesting about that. He said that ecclesiastical penal law functioned until the late 1950's; admittedly it was not perfect--there is much to criticize about it--but nevertheless it was applied. After the mid-sixties, however, it was simply not applied any more. The prevailing mentality was that the Church must not be a Church of laws but, rather a Church of love; she must not punish. Thus the awareness that punishment can be an act of love ceased to exist. This led to an odd darkening of the mind, even in very good people.

"Today we have to learn all over again that love for the sinner and love for the person who has been harmed are correctly balanced if I punish the sinner in the form that is possible and appropriate. In this respect there was in the past a change of mentality, in which the law and the need for punishment were obscured. Ultimately this also narrowed the concept of love, which in fact is not just being nice or courteous, but is found in the truth. And another component of truth is that I must punish the one who has sinned against real love." (pp. 25-26)

"Pacifists are the last and least excusable on the list of enemies of society. They preach that if you see a man flogging a woman to death you must not hit him. I would much sooner let a leper come near a little boy than a man who preached such a thing." (G.K. Chesterton)

The Lampstand Foundation

Capital Punishment

Excerpts from the Lampstand book: Capital Punishment & Catholic Social Teaching: A Tradition of Support