 zobacz powiększenie | DOI 10.12887/37-2024-1-145-10 Andrzej SZOSTEK, MIC, The Problem of Death Penalty in the Doctrine of the Catholic Church: Some Observations on the Current Debate Cena brutto: 7,00 PLN za szt. |
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The article contributes to the debate on the attitude of the Catholic Church to death penalty. The topic became particularly relevant after Pope Francis had intensified his negative stance towards death penalty by advocating radical abolitionism. In the introduction, the author describes different functions of penalty (retributive, corrective, and preventive) and attitudes to death penalty (extreme and moderate versions of retentionism and abolitionism). In the first part of the paper, the author gives a brief characterization of the views on capital punishment present in the Bible and in the history of the Catholic Church, including the pontificate of John Paul II. The views in question fall into the scope of moderate retributionism, however, the importance of the Biblical commandment to respect every human life and of the significance of mercy must be emphasized. In the second part, the author refers to the teaching of John Paul II and the amendment he introduced to the Catechism of the Catholic Church in order to substantially limit the acceptable use of death penalty. This tendency was radicalized by pope Francis who upholds extreme abolitionism. In the third part of the text, the author addresses the question whether the change in the positions of the two popes might undermine the stability of the social doctrine of the Church and submits that the amendment made by the popes is an acceptable development of the doctrine rather than its radical change. Keywords: Catholic Social Teaching, criminal law, death penalty, human dignity, charity Contact: Faculty of Artes Liberales, University of Warsaw, ul. Nowy Świat 69, 00-046 Warsaw, Poland | |
