Vatican extended support to international conference on death penalty held in Paris from February 1 — 3, 2007. Vatican wants death penalty abolished. It is following European Union and many other countries.
Death penalty is neither anti-Christian nor anti-human. The church has put to death many people over the centuries for heresy. Death penalty is as per the tradition of the church.
Vatican says death penalty “is difficult to justify today”. Why? Have murders ceased to exist? Are there no kidnappings and hijackings? What about acts of terrorism?
Vatican says there are “other means of preserving the public order and public safety”. What are those means? Is it life imprisonment?
Vatican wants punishment must be for “the common good and confirm more to the dignity of the human person.” Do the people murdered have no dignity? What common good is achieved by being lenient on murderers, hijackers, kidnappers and terrorists?
Hannah Foster was raped and murdered. Someone murdered five prostitutes at Ipswich. There are serial murders, sometimes of children. In Belgium girls who were eight years of age were raped, starved and murdered. The criminals in such cases deserve death penalty.
Vatican should not oppose death penalty. It should consider the plight of victims. Otherwise there will be revenge killings. Police will have to eliminate criminals in encounters.