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It does expressly forbid abortion and euthanasia. Catholics are not to have abortions or euthanasia or to participate in causing either. It's not so clearcut with war and capital punishment.
War is to be avoided, according to the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, updated in 1994, whenever possible but the Church maintains the teaching that there can be a "just war." Because the U.S. was allegedly attacked by Osama's men and Osama was hiding in Afghanistan, we were justified in going into Afghanistan to remove Osama and other Al Qaeda. Pope John Paul II said that the invasion of war was morally justified but, as you seemingly know, he opposed the invasion of Iraq from the get-go, and spoke out against it many times, sent an emissary to D.C. to try to talk Bush out of it, sent another emissary to Baghdad to try to work out a plan to prevent war. The pope was not pleased at civilian casualties in Afghanistan, either; a "just war" does everything possible to avoid harming noncombatants or nonmilitary sites. Had he been younger or in better health the past three years, I think he'd have
The Catechism says the death penalty is to be avoided in favor of imprisonment for life and makes a statement to the effect that it is extremely difficult to conceive of a circumstance in which it is needed in the modern world. Death penalty supporters like Antonin Scalia are correct to say that they're within Church teachings, as maddening as I find that.
I personally support the "seamless garment of life" ethic taught by the late Cardinal Bernardin, and don't understand why all Catholics don't agree on this. The seamless garment approach or what John Paul II called the "culture of life" lone before Dim Son stole the phrase, says that all deliberate killing is wrong and we should all work to end it, working to reduce the perceived need for abortion, for euthanasia, for capital punishment, and for war. It all goes back to obeying Catholic social teachings based on the Gospel of Jesus: caring for the poor, the homeless, the sick, the dying, all those in need.
To extend your proposal to protect children, people with children should boycott any organization that hires men, since 1-2% of all men (including 1-2% of all Catholic priests) are pedophiles. In fact, the best way to keep a child safe from pedophiles is to raise children away from men altogether. If you read up on pedophilia, most who engage in sexual activity with children are married men, who often prey on their own kids.
I don't mind people criticizing the Catholic Church when they have their facts straight and are reasonably polite about it but almost no one at DU seems capable of doing both. I think you're a person who listens to facts, so I hope I've clarified a couple of things for you re: Catholic teaching on war and capital punishment.
I agree that churches, like garden clubs, are voluntary in membership, so people shouldn't really care what they do as long as they do no physical harm to others or impinge on the rights of nob-members. Those who don't like the Catholic Church are not required to be Catholic and have no business telling us how our Church should be run or what we should or should not believe. That is what tolerance is all about.
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