"The New Catholick Religion"

Bishop Flores ( @bpdflores) on King Herod and America’s sinful acceptance of the death penalty https://t.co/Q8EAMha00c

— America Magazine (@americamag) December 11, 2020

Chariman-Elect of the Committee on Doctrine for the USCCB

How was the execution of Brandon Bernard any different from Harod’s state sanctioned execution of John the Baptist?
The death penalty today is a blood-lust within society and no legal veneer can hide that.
To say Harod had the authority is absurd.

— Amigo de Frodo (@bpdflores) December 11, 2020

Where is "Dignity" in the Bible or Apostolic Tradition?

It is a sad comment on US politics that many Catholics worry that this sort of argument implicitly diminishes the efforts against abortion.

If you think that is true, then the problem is with US politics, not Pope Francis' argument. https://t.co/ISF6fK859V

— Bill McCormick, SJ (@BMcCSJ) November 30, 2020

Ultramontanes at Work

Pope Francis should be the one laying out his theological reasoning to explain himself, rather than relying upon ultramontanes to find a way to justify his assertions. Let him do his own work and take ownership for what he teaches and the responsibility for justifying it.

A very useful juridical reading of the Pope's prudential judgment on the liceity of the death penalty (h/t @Vermeullarmine): https://t.co/p6mWbxxU0q

— Rafael de Arízaga (@RafaeldeArizaga) October 7, 2020

Amputation appears to be a better example. Before the development of antibiotics, amputation—which is not a per se malum, for if it were it would never be permissible—was the preferred choice in certain cases to stop the spread of infection and preserve life.

— Fr. Aquinas Guilbeau, OP (@FrAquinasOP) October 7, 2020

It Needs to Be Asked

Did the bishop have a father figure when he was growing up?

Fred Naumann was 31 when he was murdered. He had been a minor league baseball player. He served in World War II.

Fred’s son, Joseph, is now the Archbishop of Kansas City. And he is calling for an end to the death penalty.https://t.co/3QdV8NVoWa

— JD Flynn (@jdflynn) September 6, 2020

In the Footsteps of Their Patriarch

The Archdiocese of Boston said justice demands the perpetrator of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing spend his life in prison, not be put to death. https://t.co/iaAN6xMYaj

— Catholic News Agency (@cnalive) August 4, 2020

"Eloquent Ambiguity"

Crisis: U.S. Bishops Approve the Pope’s Capital Punishment Ban by Fr. George W. Rutler

Dreher Utilizes Girard

But to what degree is he successful? He also refers to Bishop Barron's most recent piece at CWR.

I am reminded of C. R. Hallpike's criticism of Girard. See also his book Ship of Fools, and I do not find Girard's account of scapegoating convincing. (Though I suppose I should read what he has to say about sacrifice as well.) Just because his theory lead to his reversion back to the Catholic faith, it doesn't mean that it is true or correct; it may be that God can nonetheless use error to lead someone back.

See also Death to the Death Penalty? René Girard’s Challenge to Thomas Aquinas by Tyler Graham

Dreher is still Dreher in his concerns:

One immense challenge to Christians is to find a way to fight this scapegoating, and to endure it when it can’t be fought, without returning hatred for hatred. I can imagine that it would be easy for those Covington boys to be tempted by far-right white nationalism, especially given the disgraceful spectacle of some of their own woke Catholic bishops throwing them under the bus. (This is what Girard meant when he talked about churches today being “vulnerable to the ongoing blackmail of contemporary neo-paganism.”) But that would be morally wrong, and even a betrayal of the Gospel. When we lose sight of the fact that we ourselves can be part of the mob, and start to see ourselves as innocent by virtue of our identity (racial, sexual, religious, etc.), then we fall into the same scapegoating mechanism that has captured those who hate us.

Crisis Magazine Links

Fr. Rutler: Hanging Concentrates the Mind
Bruce Frohnen, A Conservative Response to Popular Culture
Regis Martin: In Defense of Disgust

Peter Hitchens on capital punishment, again

Peter Hitchens, Killing no murder? and The Civil Sword

He comments on the prohibition of veils in France: What not to wear.

But if you don't want an Islamised society, rather than messing around with clothing laws, here's another thought. May I suggest that you work out what your answer to that fierce, simple and easily-understood religion's consoling precepts is. Yes, we currently have bigger guns and better bombing planes, but so what? We are richer. But will we always be? We can get drunk (and we do). Is this a big advantage, either morally or materially? Likewise, the use of our women's freedom to dress as they like. Faced with the choice of beholding a tattooed ladette displaying a muffin top glowing with fake tan, or a Muslim woman in full niqab, most of us would at least hesitate. I put this mildly.

I have more than a suspicion that our existing society continues to survive without revolt or collapse only because it gets a little richer each year. Once that prospect is gone, and the succeeding decades instead bring shrinking pay packets, higher prices and fewer jobs, where will minds hungry for solace and comfort and hope turn to? Thanks to half a century of active secularism, most people in this country are quite clueless about Christianity and wouldn't know where to begin with it. If a religious revival comes (and we're about due for one) who is best placed to take advantage of it?