Pope Francis has formally declared the death penalty inadmissible in all cases, newsrooms declared breathlessly Thursday morning.
Though the Vatican’s announcement is certainly newsworthy, the general tenor of Thursday’s reporting, which has been a mixture of elation and delight, seems a bit undeserved.
It’s a “change in church teaching that could influence Catholic politicians and judges in the U.S. and across the globe,” the Associated Press reported.
The New York Times claimed elsewhere that the pope had made a, “definitive change in church teaching that is likely to challenge Catholic politicians, judges and officials who have argued that their church was not entirely opposed to capital punishment.”
The Vatican’s announcement “adds a new wrinkle to the question of what it means to be pro-life — particularly in the United States, where Catholics who support the death penalty sit on the Supreme Court and govern states that permit executions,” said the Washington Post.
Francis has indeed ordered for the death penalty section of the catechism of the Catholic Church to be updated so that it will now read:
Francis’ announcement is newsworthy, but it’s not quite as momentous as some would have you believe. It’s big, yes, but it’s not murder-is-now-OK big.
For starters, this isn’t the first time that the catechism has been amended to better reflect the Church’s general opposition to capital punishment. The Vatican did exactly that in 1997.
Second, the previous two popes were both well-known opponents of the death penalty. Francis simply made it official. This isn’t to downplay the news value of Thursday’s announcement. Rather, it’s to say the current pontiff has simply codified a position clearly laid out in Pope Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae, which argued that “steady improvements in the organization of the penal system” render the need for executions administered by the state “very rare, if not practically non-existent.”
All of this is to say: The Church isn’t doing an about-face on a matter of faith and morals. Francis has only made a generally held position official.
But this doesn’t mean the Post, the AP, etc. don’t make a good point about how this update in Church teaching will likely create a headache for pro-capital punishment politicians. It’ll only be a matter of time before some lawmaker pushes back against the Vatican with something along the lines of, “My body politic, my choice.” Bet on it.
