The Herod Approach

One of the more memorable scenes in Zefirelli's Jesus of Nazareth is when Herod strides through his palace screaming "Kill them all!" -- and that is the scene that comes to mind when I read the very strident defenders of the death penalty decrying Pope Francis as an antipope because of his use of the word inadmissible.

The culture of death, which is a contraceptive mentality, sees a problem and decides that the solution is to kill people. Abortions are sought because it would seem the only solution is to kill the baby. The harder choice would be for society and employers to go out of their way to provide care and income security to pregnant employees.

In the case of dealing with unreformable criminals, the solution seems to be to kill them. The harder task would be for society to work towards peaceful resolution of conflicts, to address the many downward steps that led to crime...

...or to ensure that every baby is raised in a home where the mother is provided care, nurturing, and income security. We should be working to ensure that children do not experience adverse trauma while in utero.

The most valued person in our society should be the woman-with-child. That would be a true liberation of women, rather than the sterilization pogrom currently in effect.

It's a harder task to seek a solution that does not include killing the person we would rather not be bothered with. The Holy Father is calling us to pursue the narrow way, as good popes have done for millennia. Monsignor Pope wisely counsels us to calm down and remember, "we should resist the vision of the culture of death, which insists that the killing of human beings is a legitimate solution to human problems." http://blog.adw.org/2018/08/lets-careful-charges-regarding-new-wording-catechism-death-penalty/