Religion & Law

Scalia and the death penalty

By Richard Myers

I agree completely with Eduardo's recent post. I may not have made that clear when I briefly described Bob Fastiggi's article on this issue. Fastiggi's article is a critique of Justice Scalia's approach to this issue. Fastiggi takes the view (and I agree with this) that the teachings on the death penalty in EV and the revised Catechism are (although not definitively proclaimed) deserving the treatment set forth in Lumen Gentium 25--the religious submission of intellect and will. This requires more than respectful consideration. Charlie Rice, who wrote the entry on the death penalty for the Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought I recently co-edited, is here a better model than Justice Scalia. After EV and the revised Catechism were issued, Charlie changed his view on this topic.

Richard M.

Full post as published by Mirror of Justice on January 24, 2008 (boomark / email).