Within the Catholic Church, the definition of human dignity has become so muddled that different groups of Catholics use the rhetoric of “human dignity” to justify entirely opposing ideologies. This concept can easily be applied to the death penalty, and as Catholics, the death penalty is such a notable issue to puzzle through because it provokes thought about whether such a punishment affirms our status as humans created in the image and likeness of God. Pope Francis recently made a change to the Catechism of the Catholic Church that describes the death penalty as “inadmissible,” but both pro-death penalty and anti-death penalty Catholics believe their side is the one that truly advances “human dignity.” One Catholic philosopher, Ed Feser, believes that in this change, Pope Francis creates an internal inconsistency by deviating from Catholic teaching that the death penalty is legitimate both as a consistently held tradition and as a means of securing retributive justice. However, this paper contends that the death penalty is legitimate in neither of these ways and illustrates that when Catholic tradition and teachings are applied to capital punishment, Pope Francis rightly identifies the death penalty as “inadmissible.”

Tyler is greatly appreciative of the support of Dr. Gregory Beabout in the philosophy department. Dr. Beabout has been instrumental in helping Tyler think through and develop the thoughts and arguments he presents in his paper and Tyler is grateful for the time he has put in to help make this project a success. Dr. Beabout has served both as Tyler's faculty mentor and his professor in courses of Catholic Social Thought and Philosophy of Law, and Tyler has enjoyed getting to know and learn from Dr. Beabout.