BY JOE SIXPACK
A missionary priest who worked among the native people of the Himalayan Mountains used to tell of an astounding custom among the people. Since murder was considered the most horrible crime that could be committed, the punishment was always death.
When a murder had been committed but no one knew who the murderer was, everybody in the village was obliged to pass by the victim’s body, which was placed in the main street, and as each person passed the body he placed his hand on the corpse and took a solemn vow that he had no part in the crime; an incredibly hard but fitting challenge for the guilty party.
The Fifth Commandment is: You shall not kill. As is true of all the Commandments, the Fifth Commandment implies so much more than simply murder. Indeed, this Commandment implies more than any of the other nine. Some of the sins forbidden by the Fifth Commandment are intentional homicide, abortion, euthanasia, child abuse, sterilization, suicide, and all that can lead to physical and spiritual harm to oneself or others. The latter includes anger, fighting, revenge, drunkenness, drug abuse, torments inflicted on mind and body, hatred, and bad example.
Since we now live in a culture of death, we’ll begin by looking at only a few of these this week.
Intentional homicide is the unjust taking of an innocent human life. That’s not to say that all killing is murder. The key to the mortal sin of murder is the word “innocent.” It can be lawful (God’s law — not necessarily man’s) to take the life of another person when there is no other means to defend one’s own life, or the life of another.
“The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one’s own life; and the killing of the aggressor. . . . The one is intended, the other is not” (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, 64, 7).
“Legitimate defense can be not only a right but a grave duty for one who’s responsible for the lives of others. The defense of the common good requires that an unjust aggressor be rendered unable to cause harm” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2265). It can also be lawful to take the life of another person in a just war.
Taking a life in defense of a human life opens the door to discussion of capital punishment. Like abortion, capital punishment has come to be perceived more as a political issue than a moral issue. Indeed, few issues are more hotly debated than the death penalty, but the constant 2,000-year teaching Roman Catholic Church has remained firmly resolved in the consistency of her moral teaching in this area.
If only the politicians, political pundits, and the electorate would listen to Christ through His Church! The Church tells us that she “does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2267). She continues to say, “If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person” (ibid.).
Due to the advanced state of modern penology, this essentially rules out the use of capital punishment in Occidental society, but still does not make it immoral.
Let’s finish this week’s article with a brief look at abortion. Abortion is the intentional killing of a preborn child at any time after conception. The God-given authority of a parent doesn’t extend to the taking of the life of the preborn child. Abortion, in any form, is always a mortal sin. The Church has taught from her inception that abortion is morally evil.
Despite the arguments of the so-called pro-choice lobby, abortion is never justified, no matter the cause of the child’s conception — including rape and incest. It’s easy to understand how a mother would be inclined not to want a child conceived in rape or incest, but the child still has as much right to life as the mother. The Church is very sympathetic to such involuntary mothers, and many organizations and agencies associated with the Church are set up to provide for counseling, temporal and medical assistance, and adoption as a moral alternative to abortion.
The Church automatically imposes the penalty of excommunication upon any person who procures an abortion (Code of Canon Law, canon 1398). This penalty extends to anyone who aids in its procurement or otherwise participates in any way with an abortion. This automatic excommunication, then, could extend to Catholic politicians who are “pro-choice.”
Let’s finish by making it very clear just what exactly excommunication is. Excommunication is an ecclesiastical penalty by which a baptized Catholic is excluded from the communion of the faithful for committing and remaining obstinate in certain serious offenses specified in canon law. Any excommunicated Catholic is deprived of Church membership and its spiritual goods until he repents, is absolved, and the excommunication is lifted by proper ecclesiastical authority.
In other words, should a person who is excommunicated die in that state, he goes before Almighty God already judged by His Church.
If you have a question or comment you can reach out to me through the “Ask Joe” page of JoeSixpackAnswers.com, or you can email me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.
Hey, how would you like to see things like this article every week in your parish bulletin as an insert? You or your pastor can learn more about how to do that by emailing me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.
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