Madam, - In a question and answer session at UCD Law Society, US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is reported as declaring that he would resign if he were to find that Catholic doctrine prohibited the death penalty ( The Irish Times, March 7th). This might give the impression that the Catholic Church actually supports the death penalty.
However, the present teaching of the Catholic Church on this matter is not at all favourable to supporting the death penalty. Paragraph 2266 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994) declares that the primary purposes of punishment inflicted by society "is to redress the disorder caused by the offence". This also fulfils the purpose of defending public order and ensuring people's safety, while at the same time offering the offender an incentive and help to change his or her behaviour and be rehabilitated.
In his 1995 Encyclical Letter Evangelium Vitae Pope John Paul II further clarifies these principles by saying (paragraph 56) : "It is clear that, for these purposes to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today however, as a result of steady improvements in the organisation of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent."
This topic in the encyclical concludes by restating the validity of the principle set forth in the Catechism at paragraph 2267: "If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority must limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person." - Yours, etc,
JOHN A. KEHOE, Law Library, Four Courts, Dublin 7.