Human life, he said, “is always sacred”: that’s a line Catholic leaders are very keen on, of course, but usually in connection with abortion, which it vehemently opposes. Liberal Catholics have long argued that the church should be as vociferous on other aspects of taking life as it is on abortion: what will be most surprising to many about the news from Rome is that the Catholic catechism – its central statement of faith and belief – still, in its 1992 edition, allows for the death penalty in certain circumstances. Abortion is not allowed under any circumstances.
But if it sounds uncontroversial enough for God’s man on Earth to be condemning killing, think again. A US survey last year found that 43% of American Catholics back the death penalty – not as high as the 69% of white evangelicals, it is true, but a significant minority who will inject yet more discontent into the ranks of the church, under the Argentinian pontiff who, while he’s undoubtedly top of the popes in the wider world, is an increasingly divisive figure among his own followers. [...]
If Francis decides to change Catholic teaching on that, he will put the cat well and truly among the pigeons, not only inside his own church (can a Catholic be in the armed forces, if the Pope says war is always wrong?), but also across the whole world, which will have to reconsider the basis of why wars are ever fought, and whether it is ever right for any group of human beings to take up arms against another. The ripples from the fallout of that debate are likely to be truly awesome.
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