What about the human dignity of those among the innocent who must guard the guilty prisoners of the most dangerous sort?  A guard’s lot is horribly physically risky and mentally stressful, especially in the nations where the most care is taken for the human dignity of prisoners.

Then because the guards are only human and unable to switch off their mental responses and protections against the stresses of a work environment full of guilty, hostile criminals, the guards go home after their shift and continue to suffer.  Their families suffer too.  Divorce, for example, is an occupational hazard of being a prison guard.

I am distressed that what is reported about our Pope’s nice sentiments toward those convicted of heinous murders omits any mention of his pastoral care for the prison guards who daily struggle to prevent prisoners from killing and maiming each other, their guards, and anybody else in reach of these convicts.

As a Catholic,I support the death penalty. You mean to tell me that if we had caught Hitler or bin Laden, that, after a trial,  “justice” for 6 million Jews, or 3 thousand Americans, would have been to keep those slimeballs in prison , fed and housed by tax payers, for life? No way !! When the Pope was Cardinal Ratzinger, he distinguished the death penalty from abortion, and Catholic’s options, this way:
“3. Not all moral issues have the same moral weight as abortion and euthanasia. For example, if a Catholic were to be at odds with the Holy Father on the application of capital punishment or on the decision to wage war, he would not for that reason be considered unworthy to present himself to receive Holy Communion. While the Church exhorts civil authorities to seek peace, not war, and to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible to take up arms to repel an aggressor or to have recourse to capital punishment. There may be a legitimate diversity of opinion even among Catholics about waging war and applying the death penalty, but not however with regard to abortion and euthanasia.”
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/bishops/04-07ratzingerommunion.htm
So while he may not like the death penalty, I do, and as a Catholic, I can !!!

God is love. Human life is sacred. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I teach these simple truths to my children. When the woman caught in adultery was brought before Jesus, how did he handle it? I’d like to ask which of the above commentators is without sin.

Dan, I, too, support capital punishment, but only to a VERY limited extent. The current use of capital punishment is unjust, and must be remedied. I don’t have all, if any, of the answers, but I would like to see more creativity in the death penalty debate. The goal that I think we should be going for is to keep it on paper, but make it almost impossible, and even not worth it, to use.

Instead of the death penalty, how about taking our worst criminals and organizing them into Penal Battalions or Criminal Brigades.  We can call it the War Korps.  (I put that “K” in there to make it look more menacing and Germanic.)  This could be like an expanded “Dirty Dozen”.  Instead of the worst of the worst sitting around in prisons and being televised by some degenerate media types who have nothing better to do, but think the general public wants to watch retards with tatooes expound on their lockup adventures, let’s utilize these people for invading countries.  For example, we could send them to invade Iran, and then disavow all knowledge of them.  They would all be wiped out anyway.  Does such a solution sound cruel!?  Fantasy and morbid humor aside, take a look at some of the people you see on these “inside the prisons” TV shows.  Seen enough?  Want your daughter dating these guys?  Are these criminals products of bad breaks and genetics gone bad?  Probably.  So what is to be done with them beyond prison?  Will they kill and rape again after they serve time (unless they are lifers for life)?  Probably.  Who is going to hire them to do what?  Are many (if not most) mentally ill?  Probably.  What if these people were “eliminated” in mass executions?  Obviously not going to happen in our “humane” society.  So here we have umpteem numbers of the dregs of society, and I am talking about the very worst criminals, and what are we going to do with them?  What about all those white collar, corporate theives, who robbed people of their life savings?  Ever thought they should be executed?  I’m sure glad the members of the church hierarchy have the time and the comfortable surroundings to meditate on all this, while the rest of us have to worry about being raped or murdered by all those thugs some clerics think should be exempted by an “earlier death”.  So much for justice!!!!!!!!

Justice without mercy is cruel and unchristian.  Mercy without justice is also cruel and unchristian.  This is why the death penalty is necessary.

HOWEVER, the legal profession in this country has made the imposition of the death penalty insane and only randomly just.  I can only imagine how unjust its implementation is in other countries.

It is unclear from the article what was the rationale of PBXVI for this statement.

God is love. Love your enemies. Human life is sacred. Two wrongs don’t make a right. I try to teach these simple truths to my children. When the woman facing the death penalty was brought before Jesus, how did He handle it? With all due respect for the human dignity of those working in the prisons, alleviating their stress (or eliminating their jobs) is no argument for excercizing the death penalty. And for those who are concerned about expenses, the legal costs associated with the long processes associated with the death penalty far exceed the cost of room and board.

What about God’s covenant with Noah? How can it be abrogated?  How can we dialogue with Islam, an antithetical religion to Christianity that denies the divinity of Christ?  These are very troubling questions for me.

The main reason for capital punishment is expiation, i.e., God has been offended first and foremost for a man, made in His image, has been put to death. The death penalty, in some way, makes atonement to God for such a crime of attacking the Image Himself, the Son of God. The world has had prisons and dungeons for centuries, even thousands of years, that were quite secure, and yet the death penalty was always accepted by Holy Church. In fact, just read your history books, and you will find that popes, actual popes, ordered the executions of many hundreds of criminals. Pope Sixtus V, who had to deal with the problem of highway robbers, once said: “while I live, every criminal must die.” The move to abolish the death penalty is atheistic in its origins, not ecclesiastic. So called “enlightened” men, who denied the idea of an afterlife, concluded that one could never take the life of a criminal, since that was the only life he would ever have. Statements made by Bl. John Paul II and Pope Benedict regarding the death penalty can be respectfully rejected because Traditional morality trumps their personal judgments and opinions. Unfortunately, their statements lead many people, Catholics in fact, to think that the Church has changed her teachings. Let’s get one thing straight…Church teachings never evolve. They are to be accepted in the same way and with the same meaning as given to us by the ancients. Perhaps these good popes should once again check out Pope St. Pius X’s Oath Against Modernism which rejects the notion of Evolution of Dogma.

Bob Rowland, 

Impossible to dialogue with Islam!  They have a joke about Christians which roughly says:  “The People of The Book Have a Problem With Mathematics.  They believe that 3=1 and 1=3.”  The bottom line is that Muslims (those who adhere to Islam) do not believe that Jesus is Divine.  They believe we (Christians)commit blasphemy when we say so.  However, they honor Jesus (Issa) as a top prophet, which is more than the Jews honor Him, which is not at all, with the exception of groups like Jews for Jesus.

Have those against abolishing the death penalty considered the times when it has been found later that the condemned was actually innocent?

Merlin:  You don’t make much sense, but you seem to prove my point that dialogue is indeed impossible.  Salvation is only for those who believe Jesus is God.

I am very much against the death penalty. Not even for my worst enemy (yes, that included Hitler, Bin Laden, Hussein, and all the rest), not even if an “alleged” criminal is as guilty as sin. No exceptions, no questions asked, and no answers given. That’s it.
The commandment says “Thou Shall Not Kill” (period), not “...unless a b c d OR e.

Iroy: God said to Noah: If Anyone sheds the blood of another, his blood shall be shed for man is made in the image and likeness of God. So you are against the death penalty even though it was instituted by God? I would reconsider were I you.

“While the Church exhorts civil authorities . . . to exercise discretion and mercy in imposing punishment on criminals, it may still be permissible . . . to have recourse to capital punishment.” - Pope Benedict XVI

Think about what the abolition of the DP would mean for Catholic judges, politicians.  Justice Scalia says it best, “God’s Justice and Our’s”—“I do not find the death penalty immoral. I am happy to have reached that conclusion, because I like my job, and would rather not resign. And I am happy because I do not think it would be a good thing if American Catholics running for legislative office had to oppose the death penalty (most of them would not be elected); if American Catholics running for Governor had to promise commutation of all death sentences (most of them would never reach the Governor’s mansion); if American Catholics were ineligible to go on the bench in all jurisdictions imposing the death penalty; or if American Catholics were subject to recusal when called for jury
duty in capital cases.” 
http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/gods-justice-and-ours-32

Why is it that the pope blesses the Speaker of the Ugandan legislature on the eve of her trying to pass the “Kill the Gays” bill (Dec 2012)? The pope should have used the opportunity of meeting her, to tell her that it’s an outrage that she should is trying to pass such a horrible bill.