Many people who passionately promote their pro-life position against abortion may not actually be pro-life, according to Pope Leo. In an interview, the new pope said that those who consider themselves to be pro-life are not pro-life if they also support the death penalty. Pope Leo went further to say that people who think they are pro-life should not consider themselves pro-life if they go along with the current “inhuman treatment of (illegal) immigrants in the United States.”
Not all Catholics are aware that the Church forbids abortion, but also opposes the death penalty. Many conservatives are adamantly opposed to abortion, but openly and aggressively promote the death penalty. Pope Leo says those Catholics are not really pro-life.
Whether you accept and follow everything a pope says is up to the individual and if you make a distinction between abortion and the death penalty that’s your choice, but Pope Leo is saying that if you oppose abortion you cannot also support the calculated and premeditated killing of a human being if you are truly pro-life.
The pope’s point is well-taken. Being against abortion to protect life does factually contradict with the taking of life, even if the person who is facing the death penalty has committed a horrific act that put him/her in that position. The “eye-for-an-eye” justice is prevalent in the Old Testament and is contradicted by Jesus in the New Testament.
There are some people who do follow what a pope says, but many might use the pope’s words as guidance while adhering to their own personal beliefs. As a Catholic, I have not changed my beliefs because of what a pope says and feel justified in following my own beliefs. However, in this case I do agree with Pope Leo. On the level of primal instincts, many convicted criminals have committed such atrocious acts against other human beings that the death penalty seems like the only appropriate justice. But when I think about the calculated killing of a human, I have concerns whether that is right. I can be ambivalent on the death penalty because I hear of some crimes and believe that person doesn’t even have the right to live, but there is something haunting about this clinical ending of life.
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