tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post1013110223561103246..comments2024-03-27T15:47:46.091-05:00Comments on Pastoral Meanderings: Who changes teaching. . . Pastor Petershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10653554256101480140noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-86353761065494370322017-12-20T12:08:37.251-06:002017-12-20T12:08:37.251-06:00http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2001c/0914...http://natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2001c/091401/091401a.htm<br /><br />The death penalty in part is an old Catholic tradition. Christian writers since the fourth century had defended capital punishment.<br /><br />St. Augustine did so in The City of God. “Since the agent of authority is but a sword in the hand [of God], it is in no way contrary to the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ for the representative of the state’s authority to put criminals to death,” he wrote.<br /><br />Augustine saw the death penalty as a form of charity. “Inflicting capital punishment … protects those who are undergoing it from the harm they may suffer … through increased sinning, which might continue if their life went on.”<br /><br />Aquinas followed Augustine in the 13th century in Summa Contra Gentiles. “The civil rulers execute, justly and sinlessly, pestiferous men in order to protect the state,” he wrote.<br /><br />The Cathechism of the Council of Trent, issued in 1566, solidly endorsed capital punishment as an act of “paramount obedience” to the fifth commandment against murder.<br /><br />Nor was this tradition confined to the Middle Ages. As late as Sept. 14, 1952, Pope Pius XII echoed its logic. “It is reserved to the public power to deprive the condemned of the benefit of life, in expiation of his fault, when already he has dispossessed himself of the right to live,” he said.<br /><br />The leading abolitionists of the 18th and 19th centuries were Enlightenment-inspired critics of revealed religion. Popes defended their right to send people to death because to do otherwise seemed tantamount to abandoning belief in eternal life.<br /><br />Catholic scholar James Megivern summed up the tradition this way: “If tempted to waver, one needed only to consult the bedrock authorities from Aquinas to Suarez. Questioning it could seem an act of arrogant temerity. If one did not believe in the death penalty, what other parts of the Christian faith might one also be daring or arrogant enough to doubt or deny?”ErnestOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13077415409728022160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-45360316639166646062017-12-20T10:59:10.505-06:002017-12-20T10:59:10.505-06:00I have to disagree about the ELCA departing from L...I have to disagree about the ELCA departing from Lutheran teachings. The ELCA has emphatically <i>rejected</i> Lutheran and is in the process of making a new god in their own image, one more to their liking. Recovering Lutheranhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14681139117745192567noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-33327827184551292322017-12-20T10:04:43.710-06:002017-12-20T10:04:43.710-06:00 The previous Pope Benedict was actually a theolog... The previous Pope Benedict was actually a theologian of great <br />scholarship. He understood Lutheran theology and was able to make<br />relevant observations about Martin Luther.<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6329600504016968888.post-61654120023264651612017-12-20T09:07:03.592-06:002017-12-20T09:07:03.592-06:00If fact many of "our wondering cousins "...If fact many of "our wondering cousins " are downright antagonistic. <br /> <br />And this pope really shows that Luther was right about the constant errors in the Catholic Church. Where is Benedict when we need him?Cliffhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03677328495255560309noreply@blogger.com