Pope Francis has for several years been advocating for an end to the death penalty, claiming that it is immoral. Of course such opinions are in direct contradiction to the 2000+ years of Church Tradition. I have long suspected that he has gone after that precisely because many good Catholics are ambivalent about usage of the death penalty today. Perhaps he thinks that he can tinker with it to the point of heresy since he is not too likely to receive strenuous blow-back from such heretical attempts. Therefore, if he weakens and compromises Church doctrine regarding that topic, he will have set a precedent for mutating other Church doctrine.
Earlier today, the pope addressed a delegation from the International Commission Against The Death Penalty. During that address, he dared to state that his predecessors "ignored the primacy of mercy over justice". Of course he set up one of his infamous false dichotomies between "mercy" and "justice", as though justice is not an attribute of God's.
We must continue prayers for this pope. While doing so, we must also study the Faith on our own, for many simply don't have access to faithful teachers of Church tradition.
Dec 22, Educationally Induced Murderous Insanity in America
48 minutes ago
As usual, he has it all wrong. Without justice, there is no order. And without order, there can be no heaven. And without heaven, there can be no mercy.
ReplyDeletePlease God, put an end to the Pontificate.
We will all face God's justice which is not at war with His mercy. Spiritual death is permanent. Physical death is the door we all have to go through. Capital punishment has a way of focusing a person's mind. How many have been saved by their realization that they need God's mercy -- like the penitent thief facing capital punishment!
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