Death Penalty Debate Highlights Divisions Among Christians
(ANALYSIS) After the Second Vatican Council, the 1566 Catechism continued to teach that civil authorities could use the death penalty to “punish the guilty and protect the innocent. Far from involving the crime of murder, the just exercise of this power is an act of paramount obedience to this divine law, which prohibits murder.”
On Nov. 5, 2009 — when Major Nidal Hasan killed 13 and injured 32 at Fort Hood, Texas — an updated Catechism said if guilt was “fully determined,” church teachings do "not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.” Civil authorities were urged to seek “non-lethal means ... more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.”
Quoting a 2017 Pope Francis address, the Catechism now says, “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." Thus, the church "works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”
Catholic leaders spoke quickly when the Department of Defense said President Donald Trump backed Hasan's death by firing squad on Dec. 3 at Fort Hood, the first military execution of this kind since World War II. After initially approving a public livestream, Trump canceled that order but said victims' families could attend.
A televised firing squad would have been a “strong deterrent for the World to witness how America deals with terrorists and SCUM,” the president posted. However, “many very good ... people would rather not watch him die.”
During the days when the livestream was in play, the Hasan drama offered a case study for modern Christian debates about capital punishment. Catholics cited the evolving Catechism. Protestants debated Old Testament passages supporting public executions.
The president of the National Association of Evangelicals, the Rev. Walter Kim, affirmed the “need for justice,” but told Religion News Service that “at the same time, a live-streamed execution by firing squad risks turning one of the state's most solemn responsibilities into a public spectacle, promoting a culture of death.”
But the Rev. Robert Jeffress of First Baptist Church in Dallas offered this online salvo: “Capital punishment is commanded by God in Genesis 9:6 to remind people of the sanctity of human life. The more people that can see that truth illustrated through a public execution, the better.” Trump reposted some of Jeffress' remarks.
The nature of Hasan's crime complicated matters. The U.S. Army psychiatrist, said witnesses, shouted “Allahu akbar” while shooting troops waiting for deployments overseas. Hasan represented himself during his court-martial and said he was attacking America's efforts to defeat the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads Catholic work with military services, acknowledged that Hasan's attack “disregarded the dignity of the human person.”
But on matters of capital punishment, the "Catechism was already clear and Pope Francis made it even clearer," he said in a public statement.
“Do we really want to imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries? The crime committed by Nidal Malik Hasan was heinous, but does exposing the public to his execution serve any purpose?”
The archbishop added: “As I would in the case of a procured abortion, I oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the church.”
Meanwhile, Pope Leo XIV posted on X: “The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption. #NoDeathPenalty.”
It's interesting, noted Phil Lawler of CatholicCulture.org, that press coverage focused on the papal tweet instead of the updated Catechism.
Obviously, a televised execution would have been “appalling,” harkening back to the “blood games of pagan Rome,” he wrote.
Most Catholics would agree. But quoting the revised Catechism would raise important issues, including the fact that many Catholics — including some priests and even bishops — now reject some of its teachings, especially on sex and marriage.
Also, Lawler said, “Church leaders would be wise to recognize that an absolute rejection of capital punishment conflicts with the sincere beliefs of many Catholics, living and dead — including past popes, saints and doctors of the church.”
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Terry Mattingly lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.