Pat Buchanan certainly 'gets it right' in his most recent commentary to worldnetdaily.com. It concerns the apparent conflict between the Catholic Church (of which Justice Scalia is a member) and Justice Scalia's views on capital punishment. Here is the article:
[size=3]Scalia v. the pope: Who's right on death penalty?[/size=3]
© 2002 WorldNetDaily.com
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia certainly set the cat down among the pigeons the other day at his alma mater Georgetown University. Challenging the views of the pope and the U.S. bishops, the justice urged any Catholic judge who could not in conscience impose a death sentence to get off the bench.
"[T]he choice for the judge who believes the death penalty to be immoral," said Scalia, "is resignation, rather than simply ignoring duly enacted constitutional laws and sabotaging the death penalty."
Within hours of the story hitting the wires, Wolf Blitzer was on the phone. Could I come over to CNN and explain how the justice, a devout Catholic, could openly defy the teachings of his church?
Delighted. For Scalia had not contradicted or defied any Catholic doctrine. Rather, it is the Holy Father and the bishops who are outside the Catholic mainstream, and at odds with Scripture, tradition and natural law. For an exposition of Catholic doctrine, one should pick up the essay by Cardinal Avery Dulles in the April issue of First Things. As Dulles notes, Catholicism has supported the death penalty for 2000 years:
"In the Old Testament, the Mosaic Law specifies no less than 36 capital offenses calling for execution by stoning, burning, decapitation or strangulation. Included in the list are idolatry, magic, blasphemy, violation of the Sabbath, murder, adultery, bestiality, pederasty and incest. The death penalty was considered especially fitting as a punishment for murder, since in his covenant with Noah, God had laid down the principle, 'Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. ...'
"In the New Testament, the right of the State to put criminals to death seems to be taken for granted. ... At no point ... does Jesus deny that the State has authority to exact capital punishments. In his debates with the Pharisees, Jesus cites with approval the apparently harsh commandment, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die.' ... When Pilate calls attention to his authority to crucify him, Jesus points out that Pilate's power comes to him from above – that is to say from God. ... Jesus commends the good thief on the cross next to him, who has admitted that he and his fellow thief are receiving the reward of their deeds."
In Christian tradition, "the Fathers and Doctors of the Church are virtually unanimous in their support for capital punishment," adds Dulles, citing St. Augustine in "The City of God": "[I]t is in no way contrary to the commandment 'Thou shalt not kill' ... for the representatives of the State's authority to put criminals to death. ..." To support the State's right to execute, St. Thomas Aquinas invoked Scripture, tradition and reason alike.
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