Evangelium Vitae
On the Value and Inviolability of Human Life
Encyclical · Pope John Paul II · March 25, 1995
On abortion, euthanasia and the death penalty, which it says should be used only when "absolutely necessary", cases that are "very rare, if not practically non-existent" (§56).
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2 analyses cite this document.
- Return to Tradition reads St Vincent of Lérins on doctrine, but gets his century and the Catechisms wrongDiscussing a passage Bishop Joseph Strickland shared from St Vincent of Lérins, Return to Tradition says Vincent wrote in the fourth century, that the Church was “always pro capital punishment”, and that the Catechism of Trent alone was declared “close to infallible”. Vincent wrote in 434, the death-penalty question is contested, and no catechism carries that status.Read the analysis
- Is denying the death penalty’s permissibility heresy? Checking a LifeSiteNews report on the Holy See at the UNReporting the Holy See’s call at the UN for abolition, LifeSiteNews says the death penalty is “mandated by divine law” and that denying its permissibility is at least material heresy. The sources it cites speak of a lawful power, not a mandate, and the Church has not defined the point.Read the analysis