Catholic Doctrine Regarding The Ten Commandments - Fifth Commandment - Capital Punishment

Capital Punishment

Main article: Catholic Church and capital punishment See also: List of people executed by the Holy See

For the first two hundred years, Christians "refused to kill in the military, in self-defense, or in the judicial system", but there was no official Church position on the death penalty. When the Church was first officially recognized as a public institution in 313, its attitude toward capital punishment became one of toleration but not outright acceptance. The death penalty had support from early Catholic theologians; Saint Ambrose encouraged members of the clergy to pronounce and carry out capital punishment, while Augustine answered objections rooted in the fifth commandment in The City of God. Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus also argued that civil authority to carry out capital punishment was supported by scripture. Pope Innocent III required Peter Waldo and the Waldensians to accept that "secular power can, without mortal sin, exercise judgement of blood, provided that it punishes with justice, not out of hatred, with prudence, not precipitation" as a prerequisite for reconciliation with the church. Paul Suris states that official Church teachings have neither absolutely condemned nor promoted capital punishment, but toleration of it has fluctuated throughout the ages. The Inquisitions provide the most memorable instance of Church support for capital punishment, although some historians considered these more lenient than the secular courts of the period.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church states that the death penalty is permissible in cases of extreme gravity. It is allowed if the "guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined" and if the death penalty is the only way to defend others against the guilty party. However, if there are other means available to defend people from the "unjust aggressor", these are preferred because they are considered to be more respectful of the dignity of the person and in keeping with the common good. Because modern societies have effective means for preventing crime without execution, the Catechism declares, "the cases in which execution of the offender is an absolute necessity 'are very rare, if practically nonexistent.'" Pope John Paul II discussed and affirmed this in Evangelium Vitae, published in 1995.