Well, it was the constant teaching of the Church until Pope Francis that the death penalty, as a principle, is legitimate because it is supported by Holy Scripture, even the New Testament. We have expressions there that allow us to assume the legitimacy of the death penalty. Then there is the constant teaching of the Fathers of the Church and the Popes. Therefore, it is against the constant, perennial teaching of the Church since the apostles and the Fathers to say that this penalty is intrinsically wrong or evil. This would contradict the entire tradition of the Church, and the Holy Spirit could not have led the Church for two thousand years into error on such an important issue of faith.
One pope is not the ultimate authority in this matter. Pope Francis declared that basically, the death penalty is unacceptable in itself. The application is another question how to apply the death penalty concretely depends on the circumstances of history. Therefore, the concrete application can differ.
There is a saint, Saint Giuseppe Cafasso, an Italian priest from the nineteenth century who was a teacher and spiritual father of the famous Saint John Bosco. Saint Giuseppe Cafasso accompanied those condemned to death penalty until their execution. He accompanied almost sixty condemned criminals, and all of them repented and went to heaven, like the good thief. Saint Giuseppe Cafasso called them his hanged saints. He even asked them to pray for his intercession before they were executed because they repented and accepted their death as expiation and preparation. God is so merciful that He accepts this. We do not know to what extent God accepts a repentant sinner who is executed.
There is also a famous case from France in the twentieth century, Jacques Pesch, who was a murderer and a huge criminal. Before he was executed, he had some years to reflect, and God gave him a very deep conversion, almost like the good thief.
The temporal, physical life is not absolute because the body itself is mortal. We live here on earth, but our true aim is heaven and eternity. We should not absolutize only our earthly life.
This is also the danger of those who categorically deny or state that the death penalty is intrinsically evil it is a kind of absolutization of only temporal life. We have to stress that the death penalty is applied in cases of a criminal person who is a threat to the lives of others, a danger to the security of families or society. This aspect of threat and danger to life for others is important to emphasize.
Christopher Wendt: Thank you, Your Excellency. I have a follow-up question. Is capital punishment only legitimate for self-defense, or are there crimes that really merit capital punishment according to traditional Catholic thought and belief?
Bishop Schneider: Well, there have been no dramatic decisions of the Magisterium regarding this penalty. Therefore, there is room to discuss the modes and different manners of applying this principle.
My opinion is that capital punishment should only be applied when there is a real threat to society, and there are no effective means to protect ourselves from huge and monstrous crimes. In this case, it is a kind of self-defense not formal self-defense, but a kind of self-defense.