The Death Penalty and Catholic Teaching

"In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land" (Ps. 100).

The Catholic acceptance of the death penalty as a legitimate means of punishment for very severe crimes is perennial. The legitimacy of capital punishment is rooted in Divine Revelation.

 

As far as the New Testament is concerned, there, too, we find an endorsement of capital punishment:

 

"Let every soul be subject to higher powers. For there is no power but from God: and those that are ordained of God. Therefore, he that resists the power resists the ordinance of God. And they that resist purchase to themselves damnation. For princes are not a terror to the good work, but to the evil. Wilt thou then not be afraid of the power? Do that which is good: and thou shalt have praise from the same. For he is God's minister to thee, for good. But if thou do that which is evil, fear: for he bears not the sword in vain. For he is God's minister: an avenger to execute wrath upon him that does evil" (Rom. 13:1-4).

 

St. Thomas Aquinas, states that every individual person is compared to the whole community, as part to whole. Therefore if a man be dangerous and infectious to the community, on account of some sin, it is praiseworthy and advantageous that he be killed in order to safeguard the common good, since "a little leaven corrupts the whole lump" (1 Cor. 5:6).

 

The Catechism of the Council of Trent, commenting on the Fifth Commandment states that: "Another kind of lawful slaying belongs to the civil authorities, to whom is entrusted power of life and death, by the legal and judicious exercise of which they punish the guilty and protect the innocent. The just use of this power, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this Commandment which prohibits murder. The end of the Commandment is the preservation and security of human life. Now the punishments inflicted by the civil authority, which is the legitimate avenger of crime, naturally tend to this end, since they give security to life by repressing outrage and violence. Hence these words of David: In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land, that I might cut off all the workers of iniquity from the City of the Lord".