tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21487528.post7852358887743776726..comments2023-08-19T23:23:19.849+10:00Comments on Sentire cum Ecclesia: Are Catholics Obligated to Reject the Death Penalty?Schützhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05026181010471282505noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21487528.post-20289013671500726282007-01-10T16:38:00.000+11:002007-01-10T16:38:00.000+11:00I agree, Peregrinus. Even if we presume that, on t...I agree, Peregrinus. Even if we presume that, on the basis of Catholic magisterial teaching, a moral case for the death sentence in Saddam Hussein's case could be made out, the manner in which that sentence was arrived at and carried out in this case falls far short of such a case.Schützhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05026181010471282505noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21487528.post-69128171568101708602007-01-10T14:45:00.000+11:002007-01-10T14:45:00.000+11:00“it is worth reading Allen's commentary in full, a...<i>“it is worth reading Allen's commentary in full, and also worth pondering why, among all the Church's theologians, the only ones who seem to oppose the Church's current stand on both war and capital punishment are American.”</i><br /><br />Theres’s a second point of great interest – to me, at least. In the current debate about the execution of Saddam, so far as I can see, pretty much all those who argue that the death penalty is still practically permissible in some circumstances either (a) assume that the execution of Saddam comes within those circumstances, or (b) aren’t interested in exploring that question. I don’t see anybody arguing that, yes, there are cases where the death penalty is morally permissible but conceding that, no, this isn’t one of them.<br /><br />And yet that must be strongly arguable. The defects surrounding his trial (like having his defence lawyer shot dead half-way through), the degradation and humiliation whith which, we now know, the execution itself was attended (it says something when the most dignified person in the room is the psychotic mass-murderer) and the enormous political pressures affecting his case (how come he is being executed when his trial for <i>other</i> human rights abuses is still under way?) all raise enormous problems even for theological perspectives which admit of the use of the death penalty in practice. If we read say, Avery Dulles (who argues that the death penalty can be justified in certain circumstances and discusses what those circumstances are) and then measure the facts of Saddaam’s execution against that theological template, the facts don’t really fit.<br /><br />My guess is that the Catholic defenders of Saddaam’s execution don’t explore this question because, to be blunt, it could only embarrass them to.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com