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Mark Paalman's avatar

Much better to focus on the parable for this reading, thank you.

This is twice now today that I have seen of the Church’s historical support of capital punishment, the first of which being a recent video by Michael Knowles, commenting on Pope Leo’s recent remarks wrt Sen. Durban. While personally, I am troubled more now by the death penalty than I used to be, I think Catholics should be encouraged to push back on the truth of what Church tradition actually teaches. Never ever has abortion or infanticide been sanctioned. The two, strictly speaking are apples and oranges.

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Kaleb Hammond's avatar

Absolutely. The point isn’t that capital punishment is always and everywhere good, or that there can be no disagreement on how best to use it. The point is that capital punishment is not intrinsically wrong while abortion is, so as you say, there can be no equivalence between them. This is the problem with the ‘seamless garment’ argument. And it’s not limited to the pope or bishops: at my parish, during the prayers, they often pray, ‘and for an end to the evils of abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment,’ and when they do, I don’t respond.

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Al Cerritelli's avatar

Stern and strong Kaleb, thank you.

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Kaleb Hammond's avatar

Thank you, sir! God bless!

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