“Catholics,” wrote Chesterton in his 1929 book The Thing, “know the two or three transcendental truths on which they agree; and take rather a pleasure in disagreeing on everything else.” Has the number of transcendental truths increased? I ask in light of the little furor sparked by the publication of an editorial, “Capital punishment must end”, jointly issued forth by four publications: America, National Catholic Register, National Catholic Reporter, and Our Sunday Visitor.
Three things stand out to me on reading the editorial. First, the use of “must end,” rather than “should end.” There is an obvious sense of moral absoluteness in the headline, and it is carried further in the text, which says of capital punishment: “The practice is abhorrent and unnecessary.” Those adjectives are dubious, to put it mildly. The use of "abhorrent" is especially strange considering the word conjures up a clear sense of objective evil, even though capital punishment, when administered lawfully, prudentially, and proportionally, is nothing of the sort.
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