Capital Punishment, Church Teaching, and Morality: What is Pope John Paul II Saying to Catholics in Evangelium Vitae?

I HAVE NOTICED RECENTLY THAT in debates in the United States over the so-called "ultimate sentence," opponents often refer to it as the "death penalty," as if to emphasize the fact that the state is putting (usually unjustly) someone to death. Supporters, however, often speak of "capital punishment," as if they wanted to emphasize the fact that punishment is the primary purpose of the state's (usually just) action. Whether we call it "capital punishment" or the "death penalty" (and I will use both terms interchangeably), the ultimate sentence has become a hotly contested social, legal, political, and religious topic.

This paper will not explore all of these aspects of the debate, but rather it will focus on the Catholic Church's teaching on the morality of capital punishment, especially as that teaching is found in Pope John Paul II's 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life). ¹ To accomplish this aim, I will first briefly describe the contemporary context in which the discussion of capital punishment is taking place. Second, I will examine the two contrasting views of capital punishment found in recent Catholic philosophical and theological writing. Third, I will articulate John Paul II's present teaching on capital punishment in The Gospel of Life. Fourth, I will offer my own interpretation of the Pope's teaching. Finally, I will conclude by summarizing my understanding of the papal teaching and by offering some further thoughts on the matter.

The Contemporary Context

A number of prominent factors explain the renewed secular and religious interest in capital punishment. They include the following: (1) Pope John Paul II's The Gospel of Life, which if not in principle, at least in practice restricted the use of capital punishment and the ensuing debate in the Catholic Church over the teaching of this document; (2) recent high-profile murder cases, which have increased calls on the part of politicians and prosecutors for applying the death penalty; (3) the use of DNA evidence to exonerate convicted death-row inmates or at least call into question their guilt; (4) the 2000 presidential election campaign, which had spotlighted the use of the death penalty in Texas, the home state of Republican President (and former Governor) George W. Bush, as well as in other states, especially in the thirty-seven others that legally permit the death penalty; and (5) the federal government's blunders that led to the delay of the originally scheduled May 16, 2001, execution of the convicted Oklahoma City federal building bomber Timothy McVeigh. ²

As Catholics, how are we to make up our own minds (if they are not made up already!) on this issue? Is there a particular Catholic position on the death penalty that requires our assent? If so, what is it? Or, are Catholics at liberty to either support or oppose, for just reasons, the death penalty?

Partisans on the issue as reported in the media often debate such controversial matters as whether capital punishment is administered fairly in terms of such things as race, region, and economic background, whether innocent people have been (and will be) executed by mistake, whether it deters crime, whether the mentally retarded should be executed, and whether it is too costly to administer. ³

And moral philosophers, theologians, lawyers, and others often debate—in addition to the preceding questions—such weighty matters as whether capital punishment shows disrespect for the dignity of the human person, whether it constitutes cruel and inhuman punishment, and whether it contradicts (Christian) mercy and compassion. ⁴

Although these questions about the death penalty are obviously important and will bear on its morality, they are not the only ones that we as Catholics should be considering. For Catholics, two...