The Church teaches that there are three circumstances when the death penalty is just and licit. It is just because it is ordained by God himself, and licit as well as long as the proper circumstances warrant it. The three circumstances are: 1) Self defense from an aggressor; 2) In time of war; 3) And the death penalty itself for certain grievous crimes. Crimes so evil that one should be put out of society. For example: “If a man have a stubborn and unruly son, who will not hear the commandments of his father or mother, and being corrected, slighteth obedience [Deuteronomy 21:18]They shall take him and bring him to the ancients of his city, and to the gate of judgment, And shall say to them: This our son is rebellious and stubborn, he slighteth hearing our admonitions, he giveth himself to revelling, and to debauchery and banquetings: The people of the city shall stone him: and he shall die, that you may take away the evil out of the midst of you, and all Israel hearing it may be afraid.” Deut. 21:18-21. “That you may take away the evil out of the midst of you,” it says, and also note it says, “and all Israel hearing it may be afraid,” which means the people may become fearful themselves of committing crimes such as these and avoid these sins. So the intention of God here is to exterminate the evil, and also to make the rest of the people fear so as to not commit the sin themselves. For when evil continues to exists, without consequences, there is the danger that others will fall into these same sins. “For he is God’s minister to thee, for good. But if thou do that which is evil, fear: for he beareth not the sword in vain. For he is God’s minister: an avenger to execute wrath upon him that doth evil.” Romans 13:4.
When you have people such as Ted Bundy and others who rape and kill people, and especially little children, who will not convert, they do not deserve to live. Please spare me “the dignity of every human being.” When people sin far away from God with the most heinous crimes, and “contemn the word of the Lord,” they have no dignity! In the Book of Numbers, God told them to stone the man to death for what? For merely picking up sticks on the Sabbath! “But the soul that committeth anything through pride, whether he be born in the land or a stranger (because he hath been rebellious against the Lord) shall be cut off from among his people: For he hath contemned the word the Lord, and made void his precept: therefore shall he be destroyed, and shall bear his iniquity. And it came to pass, when the children of Israel were in the wilderness, and had found a man gathering sticks on the sabbath day, that they brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole multitude. And they put him into prison, not knowing what they should do with him. (See? They had a prison but that was not the remedy). And the Lord said to Moses: Let that man die, let all the multitude stone him without the camp. And when they had brought him out, they stoned him, and he died as the Lord had commanded.” Numbers 15:30-36. Fr. Leslie Rumble from Radio Replies said, “The seriousness of the punishment shows the seriousness of the crime.” Another just motive from God is to make all the people to fear violating the law of God, and to show them how serious it was. Where there is no fear of God, men sin with impunity. “The fear of the Lord driveth out sin.” Ecclus. 1:27. It has nothing to do with not having prisons to put them in. They even had prisons way back in Genesis. “And cast Joseph into the prison, where the king’s prisoners were kept, and he was there shut up.” [Genesis 39:20].
Severe punishments have a tendency to wake people up. You ever notice the difference between a spoiled baby, a brat, and a disciplined child? The disciplined child is much better behaved. Fr. Chad Ripperger has rightly observed that , “The rod and reproof give wisdom: but the child that is left to his own will bringeth his mother to shame.” [Proverbs 29:15]. And again, “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, and the rod of correction shall drive it away.” [Proverbs 22:15]. “He that nourisheth his servant delicately from his childhood, afterwards shall find him stubborn.” [Proverbs 29:21]
“A horse not broken becometh stubborn, and a child left to himself will become headstrong. Give thy son his way, and he shall make thee afraid: play with him, and he shall make thee sorrowful. Laugh not with him, lest thou have sorrow, and at the last thy teeth be set on edge. Give him not liberty in his youth, and wink not at his devices. Bow down his neck while he is young, and beat his sides while he is a child, lest he grow stubborn, and regard thee not, and so be a sorrow of heart to thee. Instruct thy son, and labour about him, lest his lewd behaviour be an offence to thee.” Ecclesiasticus 30:8-13.
The Church officially held that the death penalty is an acceptable punishment for the protection of society from dangerous criminals and to satisfy the wrath incurred by the act for which the condemned was to be executed. In fact, Church tradition strongly favors the death penalty. Consider the following:
Pope Innocent I explicitly taught that capital punishment was acceptable to God and refused to condemn it. Pope Innocent I did not agree with Pope John Paul’s idea that we no longer needed the death penalty because we now have prisons to put them in. Neither did he agree with our American bishops who seem to think in the same vein.
Pope Leo X condemned Fr. Luther’s claim that executing (specifically, burning) heretics was contrary to the will of the Holy Ghost. You see? Heresy is a very great sin because they refuse to believe what Jesus Christ taught, and make him a liar. “He that believeth not the Son, maketh him a liar.” 1 St. John 5:10. And St. John says in his Gospel they will not see life (heaven), but the wrath of God abideth on him. “He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” 3:36, drbo.org.
The Catechism of the Council of Trent upheld the lawfulness of capital punishment. This was done with the full approval of multiple popes.
S. Thomas Acquinas himself taught this as well.
These teachings are in full accord with scriptural teaching on the subject. St. Paul even taught that there are certain crimes for which one deserves to die (see Acts 25:11). This testifies that certain crimes are rightly punished by death. “For if I have injured them, said St. Paul, “or have committed anything worthy of death, I refuse not to die.” “Worthy of death,” he said. And recall that Our Lord himself said, “If one scandalizes a little one, it would be better for him to have a millstone about his neck and drowned in the sea.” As Taylor Marshall rightly observed, this would be a death penalty.
Ironically, the general acceptability of the death penalty was not seriously questioned until the tumultuous and chaotic years following Vatican II. The Church seemed to turn upside down with Vatican II, and the disastrous apostasy foretold in the 3rd Secret of Fatima began to be quickly fulfilled. We now know this is true because a top Cardinal has now verified it, who had read the 3rd Secret, and verified that the great apostasy would come about and begin at the top.
The apostasy is now officially here with most Catholics who are married practicing contraception, most of them no longer go to Mass nor believe in the REAL PRESENCE of Jesus in the Holy Eucharist; many of them are no longer even bothering to get married in the Church or even to get married in a civil wedding! It doesn’t concern them that God killed 23,000 in one day for the sin of fornication, 1 Cor. 10:8, or if their marriage does break up, to go and find another partner and live in adultery. It doesn’t even bother them that Jesus in the Eucharist is the life of their soul and salvation, and they stay away from Mass or go to a false protestant church started by some man! It doesn’t even bother them that their children are not baptized nor can they possibly get a good Christian education in a public school in order to save their souls for all eternity, but exposing them to the incomparable danger of hellfire for all eternity. It is so sad to see so many poor children growing up in godless homes. Millions and millions of people now living in sin, and almost all women walking around in our time immodest, as Our Lady predicted 400 years ago to Mother Marianna, “Toward the middle of the 20th century, there will be very little innocence in children, nor modesty in women.” As the scripture says, “The number of fools is infinite.” Eccles. 1:15. How can a little child be innocent when it is growing up in a godless home where immodesty reigns, vulgarity is the norm, the F word is a household term, cellphones and internet garbage in their hands at an early age? Good clergy are saying that parents must make sure they have blockers on their phones if they have one, the internet time should be carefully monitored and not allowed privately, and young children should not have internet at all. If we love our children, we must be Godly people, and we must adopt the means necessary to save their souls, and that requires instructing them in the ways of God. ”It is a proverb: A young man according to his way, even when he is old he will not depart from it .” [Proverbs 22:6]. If he is taught evil in his youth, even in his old age will he be. If he is taught good, then good he will be in his old age. “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, and the evil tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can an evil tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit, shall be cut down, and shall be cast into the fire. Wherefore by their fruits you shall know them.” St. Matthew 7:17-20.
What is the sin most displeasing to God in women? It is the sin of immodesty. This was revealed to a pious lady many years ago in the book, HELL AND HOW TO AVOID HELL, page 81. Here is the story: WOMAN DAMNED TO HELL FOR THE SIN OF IMMODESTY > https://motherofgodlibrary.org/2019/12/.
Those who say the death penalty is illicit, contrary to the constant teaching of the Church and Sacred Scripture, are blind and leaders of the blind. The death penalty should be restored in every state for heinous crimes, abducting, molesting and corrupting little children, perverted sex and so on.
This is the subtitle from 25 in the Book of Numbers: “The people fall into fornication and idolatry; for which twenty-four thousand are slain. The zeal of Phinees.” What happens here? A couple commit unlawful sex and Phinees takes a dagger and kills them both, and the Word of God said he appeased the wrath of God for their sin. What he did was acceptable to God, not displeasing, but today, our bishops ill tell you the death penalty is unlawful. I do not see it.
“And Israel at that time abode in Settim, and the people committed fornication with the daughters of Moab, who called them to their sacrifices. And they ate of them, and adored their gods. And Israel was initiated to Beelphegor: upon which the Lord being angry, said to Moses: Take all the princes of the people, and hang them up on gibbets against the sun: that my fury may be turned away from Israel. And Moses said to the judges of Israel: Let every man kill his neighbours, that have been initiated to Beelphegor.”
Initiated to Beelphegor”: That is, they took to the worship of Beelphegor, an obscene idol of the Moabites, and were consecrated, as it were, to him.
“And behold one of the children of Israel went in before his brethren to a harlot of Madian, in the sight of Moses, and of all the children of Israel, who were weeping before the door of the tabernacle. And when Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest saw it, he rose up from the midst; of the multitude, and taking a dagger, went in after the Israelite into the brothel house, and thrust both of them through together, to wit, the man and the woman in the genital parts. And the scourge ceased from the children of Israel: And there were slain four and twenty thousand men. And the Lord said to Moses: Phinees the son of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned away my wrath from the children of Israel: because he was moved with my zeal against them, that I myself might not destroy the children of Israel in my zeal.” What he did, was it lawful or unlawful? Lawful, because God approved of his actions, which turned away God’s wrath. “For fornication and idolatry; twenty-four thousand are slain.” See how God’s wrath is against sin! I repeat, the death penalty should be restored in every state for heinous crimes, abducting, molesting and corrupting little children, perverted sex and so on, and many other crimes. What do you think, Yes or No? Should we petition our governors, Congressmen and Senators to reinstate the death penalty? I think we should.
If you have benefited from this article, please consider passing it on.
LORD, ARE THEY FEW THAT ARE SAVED? January 2023 post
“I PROMISE MY SPECIAL PROTECTION” Dec. 2021 Special protection by praying the rosary everyday, for ourselves and our loved ones.
Kindle E-book: Ten Books About the Faith & Salvation : Ten of the Most Important Books to Help You Save Your Soul by Larry Wethington