Pope Francis has revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church to read, “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” This statement has been understood by many, both inside and outside the Church, to teach that capital punishment is intrinsically immoral and thus is always illicit, even in principle.

Though no Catholic is obliged to support the use of the death penalty in practice (and not all of the undersigned do support its use), to teach that capital punishment is always and intrinsically evil would contradict Scripture. That the death penalty can be a legitimate means of securing retributive justice is affirmed in Genesis 9:6 and many other biblical texts, and the Church holds that Scripture cannot teach moral error. The legitimacy in principle of capital punishment is also the consistent teaching of the magisterium for two millennia. To contradict Scripture and tradition on this point would cast doubt on the credibility of the magisterium in general.

Concerned by this gravely scandalous situation, we wish to exercise the right affirmed by the Church’s Code of Canon Law, which at Canon 212 states:

The Christian faithful are free to make known to the pastors of the Church their needs, especially spiritual ones, and their desires. According to the knowledge, competence, and prestige which they possess, they have the right and even at times the duty to manifest to the sacred pastors their opinion on matters which pertain to the good of the Church and to make their opinion known to the rest of the Christian faithful, without prejudice to the integrity of faith and morals, with reverence toward their pastors, and attentive to common advantage and the dignity of persons.

We are guided also by the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas, who states:

If the faith were endangered, a subject ought to rebuke his prelate even publicly. Hence Paul, who was Peter’s subject, rebuked him in public, on account of the imminent danger of scandal concerning faith, and, as the gloss of Augustine says on Galatians 2:11, “Peter gave an example to superiors, that if at any time they should happen to stray from the straight path, they should not disdain to be reproved by their subjects.” (Summa Theologiae, Part II-II, Question 33, Article 4, ad 2)

Hence we, the undersigned, issue the following appeal:

To their Most Reverend Eminences, the Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church,

Since it is a truth contained in the Word of God, and taught by the ordinary and universal magisterium of the Catholic Church, that criminals may lawfully be put to death by the civil power when this is necessary to preserve just order in civil society, and since the present Roman pontiff has now more than once publicly manifested his refusal to teach this doctrine, and has rather brought great confusion upon the Church by seeming to contradict it, and by inserting into the Catechism of the Catholic Church a paragraph which will cause and is already causing many people, both believers and non-believers, to suppose that the Church considers, contrary to the Word of God, that capital punishment is intrinsically evil, we call upon Your Eminences to advise His Holiness that it is his duty to put an end to this scandal, to withdraw this paragraph from the Catechism, and to teach the word of God unadulterated; and we state our conviction that this is a duty seriously binding upon yourselves, before God and before the Church.

Sincerely,

Hadley Arkes

Edward N. Ney Professor in American Institutions Emeritus

Amherst College

Joseph Bessette

Alice Tweed Tuohy Professor of Government and Ethics

Claremont McKenna College

Patrick Brennan

John F. Scarpa Chair in Catholic Legal Studies

Villanova University

J. Budziszewski

Professor of Government and Philosophy

University of Texas at Austin

Isobel Camp

Professor of Philosophy

Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas

Richard Cipolla

Priest

Diocese of Bridgeport

Eric Claeys

Professor of Law

Antonin Scalia Law School, George Mason University

Travis Cook

Associate Professor of Government

Belmont Abbey College

S. A. Cortright

Professor of Philosophy

Saint Mary’s College

Cyrille Dounot

Professor of Legal History

Université Clermont Auvergne

Patrick Downey

Professor of Philosophy

Saint Mary’s College

Eduardo Echeverria

Professor of Philosophy and Theology

Sacred Heart Major Seminary

Edward Feser

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Pasadena City College

Alan Fimister

Assistant Professor of Theology

St. John Vianney Theological Seminary

Luca Gili

Assistant Professor of Philosophy

Université du Québec à Montréal

Brian Harrison

Scholar in Residence

Oblates of Wisdom Study Center

L. Joseph Hebert

Professor of Political Science

St. Ambrose University

Rafael Hüntelmann

Lecturer in Philosophy

International Seminary of St. Peter

John Hunwicke

Priest

Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham

Robert C. Koons

Professor of Philosophy

University of Texas at Austin

Peter Koritansky

Associate Professor of Philosophy

University of Prince Edward Island

Peter Kwasniewski

Independent Scholar

Wausau, Wisconsin

John Lamont

Author

Divine Faith

Roberto de Mattei

Author

The Second Vatican Council: An Unwritten Story

Robert T. Miller

Professor of Law

University of Iowa

Gerald Murray

Priest

Archdiocese of New York

Lukas Novak

Lecturer in Philosophy

University of South Bohemia

Thomas Osborne

Professor of Philosophy

University of St. Thomas

Michael Pakaluk

Professor of Ethics

Catholic University of America

Claudio Pierantoni

Professor of Medieval Philosophy

University of Chile

Thomas Pink

Professor of Philosophy

King’s College London

Andrew Pinsent

Research Director of the Ian Ramsey Centre

University of Oxford

Alyssa Pitstick

Independent Scholar

Spokane, Washington

Donald S. Prudlo

Professor of Ancient and Medieval History

Jacksonville State University

Anselm Ramelow

Chair of the Department of Philosophy

Dominican School of Philosophy and Theology

George W. Rutler

Priest

Archdiocese of New York

Matthew Schmitz

Senior Editor

First Things

Josef Seifert

Founding Rector

International Academy of Philosophy

Joseph Shaw

Fellow of St Benet’s Hall

University of Oxford

Anna Silvas

Adjunct Senior Research Fellow

University of New England

Michael Sirilla

Professor of Dogmatic and Systematic Theology

Franciscan University of Steubenville

Joseph G. Trabbic

Associate Professor of Philosophy

Ave Maria University

Giovanni Turco

Associate Professor of Philosophy

University of Udine

Michael Uhlmann

Professor of Government

Claremont Graduate University

John Zuhlsdorf

Priest

Diocese of Velletri-Segni

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