Publications

CHURCH'S SOCIAL TEACHING SAYS NO TO CAPITAL PUNISHMENT!

      A lot of renewed interest in the issue of capital punishment has been raised by recent publication of “Why Zambia Should Abolish the Death Penalty: The CCJP’s Position.”   Just why are Catholics working so hard to oppose capital punishment in Zambia?  And what justification is there for such a position?  Does the church’s social teaching help us to understand better this issue?

      It is true that within the Christian community there have been varying views over the course of history about the legitimacy and acceptability of capital punishment.  Currently, there are some Christian churches in Zambia that support that form of punishment.  Leaders of these churches have strongly criticized President Mwanawasa’s refusal to sign execution orders and his clear rejection of capital punishment.

      The official Catholic teaching is today very clearly against the death penalty, from the highest authority of Pope John Paul II down to pastoral letters of bishops around the world. This stance is based primarily on the Scripture that makes very clear the mandate to respect the dignity of life and to refuse to kill.  Those who argue an Old Testament defense of capital punishment have to be reminded that we Christians live in New Testament times and must follow Jesus teachings on forgiveness (see John 8:3-11, Luke 6:27, Luke 23:24).

      But it is only fair to acknowledge that there has in the past been a strand of teaching that did support capital punishment.  This is so because Christianity was inserted into a culture that accepted the death penalty as a fact of life. Popes have defended the practice of executing criminals, even heretics.  Indeed, the Church supported many other things that today are rejected as unacceptable, such as slavery and colonialism.  Thank God, there is a legitimate development of our social teaching! 

      In recent times, however, there has been a growing sensitivity to the value of human life and the need for social structures and political practices that respect and protect all human life.  Human rights covenants and declarations from the United Nations and from the Organisation of African Unity have made this very clear.  Zambia has signed these documents, pledging itself to implement their lofty ideals into our laws and way of life.

DEVELOPMENT OF TEACHING

The Catholic Church’s teaching has developed very clearly along the lines of rejecting capital punishment.  Three recent documents deserve to be studied if we are to understanding a teaching that does not reject punishment for criminals but does reject any form of punishment that kills the criminal.

      First, the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992) of Pope John Paul II stated that the traditional teaching of the church has acknowledged the right and duty of legitimate public authority to use, in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty.  But this right and duty is limited if bloodless means can be found to protect public order, “because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.”  (#s2266-2267

      Second, the 1995 encyclical of John Paul II, The Gospel of Life, moves the tradition forward in a very important fashion.  The Pope sees as one of the encouraging “signs of the times” in our present society that “there is evidence of a growing public opposition to the death penalty...” (#27).  He then goes on to state very clearly that the punishment of a criminal “ought not to go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity; in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society.  Today, however, as a result of steady improvements in the organisation of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent”  (#56). 

      Third, in the light of this 1995 teaching, the Catechism text (#s226-267) was officially amended in 1997.  The reference to legitimating the death penalty “in cases of extreme gravity,” is omitted.  And new sentences are introduced to limit the possibility of accepting the death penalty, including: “Today, in practice, because of the possibilities open to the state in punishing crimes effectively and rendering harmless those who commit them, although the possibility is not definitively foreclosed, the cases of absolute necessity for the death of the guilty party ‘are now very rare, if not practically non-existent.’” (The quotation at the end is from The Gospel of Life, #56.)

NO LEGITIMACY FOR DEATH PENALTY

      What is clear in the development of this social teaching is the recognition that execution of criminals cannot today be morally justified as a legitimate punishment.  Many pleas by Pope John Paul II and by bishops and other Catholic leaders around the world make clear this teaching.  The person who commits a terrible crime like murder most certainly should be punished, but that criminal can and should be effectively punished in bloodless ways.

      It just does not make sense to kill people who kill people in order to show that killing people is wrong!  The death penalty should not be put into practice in Zambia and the new Constitution should abolish it completely.

Peter Henriot, S.J., directs the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR), Lusaka.
Contact: phenriot@jesuits.org.zm