Capital Punishment & Catholic Social Teaching: A Tradition of Support

This book is a defense of the scriptural and traditional Catholic position of support for capital punishment in response to calls for its abolition. Based on scripture and tradition, calls for abolition are premature, though, in a positive sense, the call has generated a renewed focus on not only the magisterial history of this most ancient of teachings, but also its theological resonance within the expression of that teaching by the Fathers of the Church-ancient and modern-who most deeply reflected on it. While Catholic social teaching has always supported capital punishment, it has been opposed by some in the Catholic hierarchy as an unnecessary criminal justice tool, with current criminal justice technology being presented as providing adequate protection of the innocent against the aggressor.