Dr. John Bergsma

And, uh, uh, what I would say is, you know, when you look at the, at the, um, the gravity of the decrees that have been issued about, uh, capital punishment and, um,

and the terminology that has been used, I think that a reasonable understanding of what recent popes are teaching in this area is essentially a practical and a pastoral exhortation to the church in our age that the popes in their wisdom as successors of Peter and being led by the Holy Spirit are calling upon us, the Christian faithful,

to oppose this form of punishment and to look for alternatives, judicial alternatives.

But we have not received from the Pope's kind of dogmatic declarations that rule capital punishment as intrinsically evil because that would indeed contradict things that the Church has said in the past.

so i think that we want to keep communion with the holy father currently pope leo xiv submit our will and our intellect to his counsel as the successor of peter and pull in the same direction and as the spokesperson for the church and led by the holy spirit if he's calling us to oppose the death penalty in this age

then, uh, then so it should be done.

Um, but I don't think that anything that the popes have said in recent, uh, in the recent pontificates rule out the possibility that in the future, uh, the post may judge that, uh, a different, um, circumstance prevails and maybe, uh,

practically and pastorally, we do need to go back to having recourse to that form of punishment.

Which is a poorly defined theological term.

Yeah.

It's not a traditional terminology in theological discourse.

Right.

What is one to do?

You know, what one does is one keeps communion with the successor of Peter because there's always safety in that.

And if there's some kind of error, we can stand before Jesus with absolute clear conscience because, Lord, I was following orders, okay?

The one that you left to us and entrusted to our, you entrusted us to his shepherding care.

And you, O Lord, in your wisdom, appointed this universal pastor at this time, and we trust in his guidance.

And so we submitted.

So if there's any error on that part, it's not on us.

It's on the Lord.