DPIC PODCAST: The New Catholic Teaching on the Death Penalty and Human Dignity

In August 2018, Pope Francis pro­mul­gat­ed a new Catholic Catechism that deemed the death penal­ty ​“inad­mis­si­ble” in all cas­es and com­mit­ted the Church to work­ing to abol­ish cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment world­wide. Cardinal Blase Cupich, the ninth Bishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, joined DPIC Executive Director Robert Dunham on the lat­est episode of the pod­cast Discussions with DPIC, to explore the impli­ca­tions of the new teach­ings and how they fit into the Church’s broad­er mes­sage on social jus­tice and the sanc­ti­ty of life.

Saying ​“human dig­ni­ty is at cen­ter of all we say and do,” Cardinal Cupich stressed that church lead­ers work­ing to end cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment ​“have to make the case for human dig­ni­ty just as force­ful­ly as we do in oth­er areas,” for the poor, for refugees, for the mar­gin­al­ized, and for the unborn. ​“All of the advo­ca­cy that we do for all of these peo­ple has to have a social or civic or polit­i­cal dimen­sion to it,” the Cardinal explained. The con­tin­ued use of the death penal­ty is ​“a stain on our coun­try,” he said. ​“Let’s be hon­est. No life that was tak­en away can ever be replaced by tak­ing away anoth­er life. We can­not teach that killing is wrong by killing.”