I wonder what Pope Francis thinks about the views of the four Catholics who just ruled that it was cool to torture people to death.— emptywheel (@emptywheel) April 1, 2019
There reference there is to this:
The Supreme Court’s opinion in Bucklew v. Precythe, which it handed down Monday on a party-line vote, is at once the most significant Eighth Amendment decision of the last several decades and the cruelest in at least as much time.And I dunno, somehow that's like holding the Pope responsible for the fate of the priesthood because he doesn't want hordes kissing his ring. Of course, it turned out the Holy Father was concerned about the physical, not just spiritual, health of his flock. Oh, and he found the controversy amusing.
Neil Gorsuch’s majority opinion tosses out a basic assumption that animated the Court’s understanding of what constitutes a “cruel and unusual” punishment for more than half a century. In the process, he writes that the state of Missouri may effectively torture a man to death — so long as it does not gratuitously inflict pain for the sheer purpose of inflicting pain.
And, on top of all of that, Gorsuch would conscript death penalty defense attorneys — men and women who often gave up lucrative legal careers to protect the lives of their clients — into the ghoulish task of laying out the method that will be used to kill those clients.
Much less amusing is this contretemps in South Carolina. No, the problem is not that he bought his wife a Lamborghini, had an affair, and his church can't afford roof repairs. The problem is his defender:
“I love you Pastor John and Pastor Aventer. I believe in you. I’m praying for you. I’m rooting for you,” Carpenter said. “I cut people. I got a knife right in that pocketbook. Greenville News, come on. We done went through this. I’m still here, and guess who else is still gonna be here?” Carpenter then pointed to the Grays.
That was in the pulpit of his church, mind you, with Gray in attendance. This is the illustration in the dictionary for "Cult of Personality.
Two stories related only by the topic "religion." But I don't think the Pope is responsible for the legal reasoning (however cruel and unusual) of justices on the Supreme Court; anymore than Christians in general are responsible for Relentless Church in South Carolina. There are undoubtedly some good Catholics, perhaps even in the Vatican, who are not uncomfortable with the real world outcomes of the Gorsuch penned decision. Religion is not really meant to be a lock-step process, even though some like to preach it that way (usually, as in the case of Relentless, for their own self-aggrandizement). Is it up to me, as a pastor or a private citizen, to berate the Grays for their behavior? Is it up to the Pope to critique all public figures who are Catholic? Interestingly, that seems to be the very opposite of what this Pope wants to do; which is what has gotten him in more trouble than anything else he hasn't done.
"Religion is responsibility, or it is nothing at all."--Jacques Derrida. Whose responsibility, then? "Judge not, lest ye be judged."--Jesus of Nazareth. How can anybody be held responsible, then?
We really need somebody to get on this for us. I mean, somebody's got to be responsible for everyone else! Right?
No one has to wonder, Francis made it clear, from the hardly Francis friendly CRUX
ReplyDeleteROME - According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the death penalty now is no longer admissible under any circumstances.
The Vatican announced on Thursday Pope Francis approved changes to the compendium of Catholic teaching published under Pope John Paul II.
“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” reads the Catechism of the Catholic Church now on the death penalty, with the addition that the Church “works with determination for its abolition worldwide.”
This is a departure from what the document, approved under Pope John Paul II in 1992, says on the matter: “Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”
Also:
Calling torture a “mortal sin,” Pope Francis called on Christians to help victims of this crime against human rights.
Marking the United Nations’ International Day in Support of Victims of Torture June 26, the pope tweeted: “Torture is a mortal sin! Christian communities must commit themselves to helping victims of torture.”
The pope has spoken out many times against torture, calling it a “very serious sin.” During his visit to concentrations camps in Poland in 2016, he said: “Cruelty did not end at Auschwitz, at Birkenau. Today too, people are tortured; many prisoners are tortured at once, to make them speak … It is terrible! Today there are men and women in overcrowded prisons; they live - I’m sorry - like animals.”
And Steve Bannon wants to sue somebody because of an agreement between the Vatican and China over who picks Chinese priests, because Bannon is more Catholic than the Pope.
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