September's Poop Video - A Travesty Against God's Justice

H/T Canon 212

In September's Poop Video, Francis calls upon all Catholics to "pray for abolition of the death penalty".  Here it is now.  Below that I will explain why I believe this is supremely wrong and spiritually poisonous.

So much error.  So little time.  But I'll do my level best to unpack this crap.

I've written much about Francis' dalliance with heresy in calling for the abolition of the death penalty.  I need not rehash those writings in this post.  If the reader would like to dismiss my writings as simply the opinion of some "rigid rad-trad", go right ahead.  Will you say the same of previous popes, some of them canonized and beatified?  How about two prominent Doctors of the Church: Augustine and Aquinas?

I believe this poop video schlock isn't just about the death penalty, per se.  In fact, Francis' animus towards the death penalty is simply a trial balloon, to see how much he can get away with completely twisting Church teaching to be just the opposite of what it's always been.  The death penalty is a relatively easy topic for him to use, since many Catholics are ambivalent towards capital punishment.  Their own feelings towards the matter obscures their perception of the larger picture of the totality of Church teaching.  If Francis can work his wiles with the death penalty, it would be so much easier to attack other areas of Church teaching.

And those attacks are starting.  Last month the Pontifical Academy for Life, led by homophile Archbishop Paglia, released a document called "Theological Ethics of Life: Scripture, Tradition, and Practical Challenges".  This tome calls into question the Church's teachings on contraception.  The question is, what will Francis do with this?  It appears that many of the PAL were not aware of this document.  So only a few concocted this thing in a rather secretive manner.

So this poop video appears to be an attempt to condition Catholics to passively accept more attacks on Church teaching, but maybe it's worse than that.

Not only is Francis announcing his attempt to mutilate the Teachings of the Church regarding the death penalty, that is, to commit heresy, but he is trying to con Catholics into formal cooperation with his sinful intentions.  For many Catholics who are ignorant of the tenets of their Faith, their personal culpability may be mitigated somewhat, but I doubt that it is fully erased for the heresy does exist and they would be giving their assent to it.

We now know there are proceedings underway to change the Church's teachings regarding the sinfulness of contraception.  If Francis succeeds into duping Catholics to go along with disregard for Church teaching regarding the death penalty, it's all the more easier to convince these same Catholics that "Church teaching can change" regarding contraception.  Of course we know from our 50+ years of history that the status of abortion will soon follow that of contraception.  Recall that last week, Francis confirmed and renewed Father James Martin's appointment as advisor for Vatican communications.  Recall also that after the Dobbs ruling, Martin released a tweet in which he said, "a one-minute-old zygote is not the same as a nine-month-old baby about to be born".  Yes, he did have the nerve to say that.  But maybe that's because he knows his higher-ups are of the same mind-set as he.

I certainly cannot join in prayer for that "intention".  Truth be told, I stopped praying "for the pope's intentions during my morning offerings.  Instead, I pray for his conversion to the One True Faith.

Pope Francis Toys With Heresy In His Hostility Towards Capital Punishment

Pope Francis has made known his animosity towards capital punishment, going so far as to condemn it outright.  Of course in doing so, he has directly contradicted centuries of Church teaching.  These teachings include proclamations by various popes and the Council of Trent.  Also read here, here, here, here, and a smattering of my previous posts dealing with this as the Maryland Catholic Conference repeatedly blundered on this topic.

In Evangelium Vitae, Pope St. John Paul II betrayed his personal distaste for capital punishment, but he respected Sacred Tradition enough to acknowledge that it trumped his personal proclivities.  In other words, he understood that as the Successor of Peter, his role was to safeguard and promulgate the Deposit of Faith in its entirety.

Today we heard from several sources that Pope Francis thinks the catechism should be updated to reject the death penalty.  See here and here.

Ponder these considerations:

• The pope is the guardian of Church teaching, not its judge.  He cannot alter it to his personal liking.
• The Teaching of the Church is immutable for it stems from God's word, which is as immutable as He is.  To pretend that God's word can change is to insinuate that God is subject to change.  That is impossible.  Such notions strike at the very nature of God Himself - a supreme blasphemy.
• "Heresy" is defined as by St Thomas Aquinas as being "a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith of Christ, corrupt its dogmas".  The morality of capital punishment has been promulgated by the Church for hundreds of years.  It will not change.  The attempt to change it is inherently heretical. 

If God's teaching can be held to be subject to change in this matter of capital punishment, then all topics of doctrine and morality can be seen as subject to change.  I believe this is the main goal of this latest papal move.  This proposed change to declare capital punishment to be anathema is a trial balloon.  If this "balloon" appears to be flying free, we'll see the heresies ensconced in Amoralis Lamentia being promulgated without nuance or apology within our Churches.

Thus far Pope Francis has opposed capital punishment as a matter of public opinion.  For canon lawyers and moral theologians out there, if the pope does attempt to alter the catechism, will that constitute an act of material and formal heresy that might render his papacy invalid?  I don't know, but it seems to me to be a reasonable question.

Did The Pope Utter Heresy In Regard To The Death Penalty?

We know that several of the previous pontiffs have personally opposed the death penalty.  Pope Saint John Paul II was one.  He wrote about it in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae.  However, he acknowledged that the state still had the right to legitimate use of the death penalty.  He never tried to abolish it outright.  He couldn't, for the legitimacy of the death penalty has been established Church teaching for the past 2,000 years.  I will link to two blogging colleagues who wrote pieces in response to the erroneous efforts by a number of Catholic press outlets.  One is by From Rome and the other from One Peter Five.  In my post two weeks ago I also presented some Catholic truth on the matter.  I think all this supports From Rome's premise, that it is a heresy to claim that capital punishment is wrong.

That makes the pope's words, released this morning by Vatican news outlets, to be quite troubling.

He stated today that the death penalty is "inadmissible, however serious the crime".  Ladies and gentlemen, that is not Catholic doctrine - and thus not the teaching of Jesus Christ.  Will this pope declare that his predecessors and many Doctors of the Church to be in error?  He rails against "punishing one murder with another".  His statement does not do justice to the definition of "murder" according to Catholic moral theology, as I explained in my March 6th post.

No pope can contradict the perennial teaching of Holy Mother Church - but that is precisely what Pope Francis did this morning!  St Thomas Aquinas defines heresy as "a species of infidelity in men who, having professed the faith in Christ, corrupt its dogmas."

So does this blanket condemnation of capital punishment constitute heresy?

Pope's Erroneous Call For End To Death Penalty AND Life Imprisonment

As most Marylanders know, the State of Maryland last year abolished capital punishment of deadly criminals (the execution of innocent babies goes unabated, however).  I wrote two pieces that both excoriated the Maryland Catholic Conference and demonstrated why they actually violated Church teaching in their effort to abolish capital punishment.

In their efforts to abolish capital punishment, both on their website and during testimonies in Annapolis, the MCC stated that Maryland would be able to protect its citizens through the use of life imprisonment without parole in lieu of the death penalty.  I've saved screen shots of two of these and will post them after the jump break so as not to take up too much space in the main screen.

However, Pope Francis today made clear his opposition not only to the death penalty, but to life imprisonment.  He said "life imprisonment is a hidden death penalty".  So he just contradicted Archbishop Lori and the Maryland Catholic Conference.  He made the latter appear to be a bastion of conservative common sense - that's quite an accomplishment!

More seriously, though, he spoke in disregard to Evangelium Vitae and the hundreds of years of Church teaching.  He seems to impute motives of "violence and revenge" to governments who employ these means.  I've no doubt that some corrupt regimes do precisely that; however, to issue a blanket denouncement of life imprisonment - and the death penalty for that matter - is simply irresponsible.

What also seems to be disregarded is that governments have a solemn duty to protect their citizens from unjust aggression - including that which arises from other citizens.  That is an overriding concern, and in fact one that must rise above the "redemption" of one criminal.  So without at least life imprisonment, just what does His Holiness think should be done with those violent criminals who simply won't be "redeemed"?  Do I hear crickets?

Ladies and gentlemen, sometimes we must disagree vociferously with our Church leaders in matters of "prudential judgment".  Clearly this is one of them.  I link now to excellent points by Vox Cantoris.

Again, the MCC writings are below this jump break.

NCR Article Likens Martin O'Malley To Jesus Christ

Please do not have any food or drink in your mouth as you read this NCR dribble, for you may wind up spitting it all over your monitor and keyboard as you laugh out loud.

Tom Gallagher of course celebrates the abolition of the death penalty in Maryland.  However, he takes the Maryland Catholic Conference to task for "not mustering up a simple thank you to the leadership of O'Malley.."  He then draws a parallel of this imagined slight of O'Malley to the ingratitude of the nine lepers healed by Jesus.  I'm not kidding!  He just compared aborto-phile and homo-phile Martin O'Malley to Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!

One must wonder why Gallagher sees fit to engage in such unabashed boot-licking for O'Malley.  Yes the latter is posturing for the White House.  Is the former posturing for some cushy administrative position?  If not, why the mindless pandering?

By the way - "NCR" means "Not-At-All Catholic Reporter".

The Death Penalty

As most readers know, the State of Maryland has just abolished the death penalty.  Oh no, I don't mean that Maryland has halted the murder of nearly 100 babies every day vis-a-vis abortion; I mean for the 1 convicted felon who was executed every 4-6 years (at most).  For that, the Maryland bishops lavished praise upon the CINO governor who has been known to use his bully-pulpit to raise funds for Maryland NARAL.

Initially I thought the abolition of the death penalty was a matter on which there could be legitimate disagreement amongst Catholics.  I no longer believe that.  Let me start by differentiating between two concepts that are often erroneously thought to be equivalent; they aren't.  They are:

1. Opposition to capital punishment
2. Abolition of the death penalty

One is a matter of personal belief, of prudential judgment.  The other is a matter of public policy.  One does not necessarily imply the other.  Let's now refer to Evangelium Vitae, section 56.  Please read the entire section.  I'll copy below a paragraph from that section.

"It is clear that, for these purposes to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not 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 organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent."

Well, these cases are not non-existent.  They might well be rare, but from time to time they do exist; that's just reality.  In those rare cases, Church teaching provides for the imposition of capital punishment by legitimate civil authority.  Why?  Because as the encyclical clearly states, in those cases capital punishment is required to defend society.

 Acknowledging that God alone has supreme authority over life, the Church also acknowledges through Scripture and Tradition that God delegates the responsibility of capital punishment to legitimate civil authority.    Such delegation cannot be abdicated by state authorities, for in so doing, they stand in disobedience to the God who laid that charge upon them.   And once again, progressives within the Church hierarchy (and I mean you, Maryland Catholic Conference!) join the Maryland governor and other officials in their arrogance and disobedience as they thumb their noses at the Lord of Life and abdicate their duties and responsibilities to protect innocent life on one hand - and on the other hand, foster the murder of innocent children.

The Maryland bishops would do more for the culture of life if they demanded that the stonewalling of the Carhart investigations cease and that abortion be banned in Maryland.  Stop the murders of the 90+ babies everyday in Maryland before braying about false "triumphs".

My colleague at An Archdiocese of Washington DC Catholic links to a petition to put the matter to referendum.  I in turn will link to his piece.  I will sign the petition.  Knowing that this petition will never be allowed in Church, I urge interested readers to visit that site.