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Is The Death Penalty Pro-Life?

by Brian Murphy

Fostering media statements about the need for abolition of the death penalty and the need for more gun control amount to a capitulation to the left wing liberal agenda.  Just like the Devil, who loves to change the topic, confuse, divert, switch bad into good and good into bad, they tout these topics to draw attention away from the horrendous crime of abortion that is being ignored.

Consider some annual statistics (2015) for the U.S.:

Abortions:
900,000
100% innocent; "The most unjust execution" - St. John Paul II
Homicides:
11,000
mostly innocent
Vehicular manslaughter:
300
mostly innocent
Death penalty:
35 (annual average since 1976)
mostly guilty but unfortunately a few are innocent

Consider 42 million abortions annually worldwide.

The death penalty ranks way down the list in the number of annual deaths due to social sin.  There is merit in calling for a hold on the death penalty, largely because it has become apparent that due to flaws in our justice system, some of those executed are innocent.  But the magnitude of this problem pales in comparison to abortion.  U.S. Catholic bishops have called for a total ban of the death penalty and sometimes introduce the topic into pro-life discussions, implying that there is some kind of moral equivalence. Actually, permanent abolition of the death penalty in all cases contradicts Catholic teaching which maintains that there may be extreme cases where incarceration is insufficient to protect society.  A prime example of this is the ability for incarcerated gang members to orchestrate assassinations on the outside of jail while serving time inside jail.  In this case, at least, the death penalty is pro-life!  Another important example is the case of an unrepentant terrorist who spurns our judicial system and vows to kill again. Shall society let him go to prison to kill other inmates and write letters to inspire Jihadists all over the world? No! Society needs the death penalty to defend itself. Therefore, to make abolition of the death penalty issue a central tenet of the pro-life cause is a bad idea from both a strategic and moral perspective.  Yet, the U.S. bishops will make more media noise about this than any of the other issues in 3rd, 2nd or 1st place.  Why is that?

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