Gus talks about the recent change in Church teaching regarding the death penalty, initiated by Pope Francis, calling it "inadmissible." While most Catholics are not directly affected by this, there may be a time when they are. Gus asks listeners if a Catholic who is against the death penalty can sit on the jury in a capital case; that is, a case that may result in the defendant receiving the death penalty.
Catholic theology professor, author and Director of the Citizens for a Pro-Life Society, Monica Migliorino Miller, calls in to discuss Pope Francis' change to the Catholic teaching on the death penalty and the theological means, which she considers questionable, he used to arrive at the conclusion that the death penalty is now "inadmissible" for Catholics.
The first question I have to ask myself is does this change draw me closer to God’s one truth? Yet, it sounds as though the greater concerns are the legal loopholes. Sounds as though now we have to choose to whom we answer – God or man. Secondly, the discussions I’m hearing don’t seem to address the universality of the church and how that wording is translated and applied in various countries of various political and social customs.
I definitely have a problem with this ‘new’ teaching and bringing the question of the death penalty into the backdrop of modernity. Because I believe the ‘teaching’ scriptures are the inspired Word of God, that they are timeless and speak to us in the light of our human condition, regardless of the backdrop. What Pope Francis has done with this single topic could potentially open a door that many critics of the Catholic Church have been calling on now for years, decades, maybe centuries, and that is to modernize the Bible. In today’s modern world of technology and scientific thought any sin can become justified (adultery, the homosexual lifestyle, abortion) and tries to reduce the Bible to irrelevance. What has the Holy Father done?