#426: Has Catholic Teaching On Capital Punishment Changed?
The Patrick Coffin Show | Interviews with influencers | Commentary about culture | Tools for transformation
Patrick Coffin
4.8 • 1.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 October 2025
⏱️ 29 minutes
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Summary
In this video, Patrick Coffin reviews the teaching of the New Testament on capital punishment (since the Old Testament is so obviously supportive) and how consistent and strong the teaching is, rooted in the Bible and the natural moral law.
Biblical Record:
Civil Authority: Romans 13:1–4 The state bears the sword by divine mandate
Personal Example: Acts 25:10–11 Paul accepts death if guilty
Criminal Justice: Luke 23:39–43 Jesus affirms the thief’s confession of just punishment
Divine Delegation John 19:10–11 Authority to punish comes from God
Mosaic Context John 19:7 Mosaic law included capital punishment; not abrogated as immoral
Divine Precedent: Acts 5:1–11 God directly punishes by death
Judicial Authority: 1 Peter 2:13–14 Governors punish wrongdoers as God’s agents
Theological Analogy: Hebrews 10:28–29 Death penalty as model of divine justice
Apocalyptic Symbolism: Revelation 19:11–15 Christ wields the “sword” of righteous judgment
Philosophy: Drawing on Edward Feser and Joseph Bessette’s book By Man Shall His Blood Be Shed—a rigorous exploration of justice, deterrence, and moral order.
👉 Link to book on Amazon https://amzn.to/4qbvKlW
Balance: Mercy and justice are not opposites; both reflect God’s holiness and love.
Final takeaway: Catholics can uphold both the sanctity of life and the moral seriousness of crime without contradiction.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, Patrick Coffin here with some thoughts on capital punishment. Capital punishment is in the news, |
| 0:06.7 | thanks to an answer that Leo the 14th gave to a reporter two weeks ago as I record this, |
| 0:13.6 | in which he said that if you are against but you support capital punishment, which I think he calls the penalty, |
| 0:22.7 | then you are not truly pro-life. This is what he said. |
| 0:25.5 | Someone who says I'm against abortion but says I'm in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life. |
| 0:30.8 | Well, it's a common view, but unfortunately it's not correct. That is not an accurate statement |
| 0:37.0 | nor expression of the Catholic faith with |
| 0:39.9 | respect to and capital punishment. But other Catholic commentators like Anna Munli have kind of |
| 0:47.8 | piled on and agree with him based on this. I don't know what to call it neo-modernist, |
| 0:53.0 | low-information Catholicism that even |
| 0:56.3 | influencers can fall prey to if they don't really know the biblical and natural law basis for |
| 1:01.5 | teachings like the support the church has had for 2,000 years for capital punishment. |
| 1:06.5 | Here is her clip piling on. |
| 1:07.7 | So the Pope recently said that if you support the death penalty, that that's not very pro-life. And that has stirred quite a few things up, and I have been asked like, what my thoughts on it? I tend to agree with him, but before you write me off, because I know a lot of people are angry, I'm not saying that I think everyone who agrees with the death penalty is not pro-life. I don't think that at all. But I also don't believe that we |
| 1:28.1 | should decide who lives and who dies, even when someone is guilty. To me, there is a difference |
| 1:33.0 | between protecting society and playing God. Okay, so, well, there's so much to unpack here. |
| 1:40.1 | I think what I'll do is I'll do an end run around an objection that some of you might have |
| 1:44.7 | if I appeal to the Old Testament because they'll say, well, wait, the Old Testament, that's the mean |
| 1:49.2 | kind of justice-oriented God. But after the incarnation, when Jesus meek and mild came, |
| 1:54.8 | then the moral rules change somehow. And now, you know, no Christian can support capital |
| 1:59.9 | punishment. I want to interrupt my narrative intro just to remind you of my regular podcast, |
| 2:05.3 | features mostly interviews, and the True North community. |
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