In a recent episode of Fire Branded I explained that part of my objective as an online Catholic communicator is to help Catholics to think clearly, cleanly, and to be able to spot a lie that looks very much like Truth. An example I gave was the misinformation about the so-called change of teaching on the death penalty under Pope Francis in 2018. I wanted to offer an explanation of the Truth.
I encounter this all the time, “The Pope/Church changed teaching on the death penalty!” The charge is usually framed dramatically: the Church reversed herself, abandoned tradition, or contradicted her own doctrine. That’s all incorrect.
The sources of the history of this teaching tell a different story. The 2018 revision of the Catechism didn’t not introduce a new moral principle about the death penalty. What it does is reflects a development in the Church’s judgment about whether the conditions that once justified its use still exist.
Catholic teaching had long held that capital punishment could be used only if it was necessary to defend human life and protect society. It was always a very-last resort, and only to protect society. But as modern penal systems developed and that necessity largely disappeared (which we’ll see in a minute), the Church’s moral assessment of the death penalty developed accordingly.
The Catechism teaches that legitimate public authority has the duty to defend the common good and protect human life. Punishment serves several purposes: restoring justice, protecting society, and contributing to the correction of the offender. As the Catechism states, “Legitimate public authority has the right and duty to inflict punishment proportionate to the gravity of the offense” (CCC 2266).
Historically, Catholic teaching did not exclude the death penalty in principle if it were the only possible way to defend society from a dangerous aggressor. Yet that permission was never unconditional. The moral reasoning of the Church always placed limits on the use of the death penalty.
Those limits appear clearly in the classical theological tradition. (continues below)
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