Yes. You don't have to convince me, I'm strongly opposed to the death penalty already.
Not trying to convince you per se' my friend. I admittedly haven't had time to read all this thread. Some posts are rather long and I tend to skim over the longer winded ones.
My intent was to try and show, that though the Church does uphold the plausibly moral legitimacy of the death penalty in the rarest of instances - when all other recourse to protect the innocent in society is exhausted, that she is hardly contradicting herself by being
for the death of anyone because it realizes the protection of society is paramount to the life of the one.
I see this as part of the problem with understanding the Church position.
That people (not you) generally think that the Church is pro-life and yet
for the death penalty or war when in actuality it really is not yet they then perceive this as some form of contradiction without taking the time to understand the reasoning. This is the mistake of rash judgement.
It would be no different than similar nuances in any bio ethics/morality issue. There are usually exceptions.
In this case - allowing for the death penalty is one of the rarest exceptions, just as there are rare but morally acceptable instances for sterilization, invitro or medicinal reasons for using the pill or an otherwise illegal drug which in no way promote the wide spread immoral usages/abuses of those practices.
So lets be clear for all concerned:
The Church
does not back the death penalty as its currently in place and only in the rarest (and as the Pope said) almost no existent circumstances can its use be morally justified.
To say otherwise would be the same as saying the Church backs abortion or war because of the rares almost non-existent instances when to do so may not be immoral.
Peace FaB.