Pope Francis is dead. God help the Catholic Church if the cardinals elect a pope who is harsh toward divorced Catholics

 Pope Francis, the man who shocked the world with his sympathetic comment about the gay community and his humility, is dead. A new pope will be elected soon. If you've seen Conclave, you know how that works.

Most Americans are aware of Francis's saintly modesty, but they don't know that Pope Francis tried to reunite the Catholic Church with divorced Catholics. 

In Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love), Francis's lengthy Apostolic Exhortation, Pope Francis wrote that divorced and remarried Catholics "need to be fully integrated into Christian communities in the variety of ways possible, while avoiding any occasion of scandal." 

Indeed, Pope Francis emphasized:

Such persons need to feel not as excommunicated members of the Church, but instead as living members, able to live and grow in the Church and experience her as a mother who welcomes them always, who takes care of them with affection and encourages them along the path of life and the Gospel. This integration is also needed in the care and Christian upbringing of their children, who ought to be considered most important.

Pope Francis recognized that divorced Catholics "have entered into a new union" that "should not be pigeonholeed or fit into an overly rigid classification leaving no room for suitable personal and pastoral discernment." Nor should the Church see itself as a "tollhouse," but as "the house of the Father, where there is a place for everyone, with all their problems."

Some Catholic priests have embraced Francis's call for compassion and inclusion toward divorced Catholics, allowing divorced and remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments. However, others have forced these individuals to undergo a rigorous annulment process that hearkens back to the spirit of the Inquisition. This haughty and judgmental attitude has alienated millions of Catholics and driven them out of the Church.

The cardinals will almost certainly elect a new pope who will be kindred in spirit to Pope Francis and the good Pope John XXIII.  Let us all pray that the next pope has the compassion and courage of these two saintly predecessors and will bestow the mercy of Christ on divorced Catholics and welcome them to partake of the sacraments. 

 

Photo credit: Children of the Inquisition

 

Louisiana executed Jessie Hoffman Jr. last night: The State killed him twice

 The State of Louisiana executed Jessie Hoffman Jr last night in Angola Prison's death chamber. He was killed with nitrogen gas after his lawyers lost a last-minute appeal arguing that the execution method was cruel and unusual.

If anyone deserved the death penalty, it was Mr. Hoffman. He kidnapped, raped, and murdered a young woman in 1996.

Nevertheless, it is unconscionable for Louisiana to confine someone on death row for decades before killing him. As Pope Francis observed, a life sentence is a death sentence. 

In essence, then, the state of Louisiana executed Hoffman twice: First, by confining him for more than a quarter of a century as a death row inmate and a second time by injecting him with nitrogen gas.

In my humble opinion, that's a cruel and unusual punishment.

My feeble Catholic testament against the death penalty. Capital punishment coarsens us all.

Ten years ago, Pope Francis spoke out against the death penalty. Addressing a delegation from the International Association of Penal Law, the Pope said this: "All Christians and men of good faith are therefore called upon today to fight . . . for the abolition of the death penalty--whether it is legal or illegal, and in all its forms . . . ."

In speaking out against capital punishment, Pope  Francis followed the example of Pope John Paul II, who condemned the death penalty as "both cruel and unnecessary." 

In 2018, Pope Francis revised the Catholic Catechism to make clear that the death penalty is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." Therefore, the Catechism instructed, the Catholic Church would work "with determination to its abolition worldwide."

Catholics confront the reality of capital punishment every time they attend a Mass or contemplate the crucifixes that many Catholics display in their homes. Christ died a horrible, gruesome death--hung naked on a tree and forced to lift his nail-implanted feet just to breathe until he finally died of blood loss and asphyxiation. 

Surely, as Catholics, we are called upon to oppose any kind of execution by the instruments of government, whether by hanging, firing squad, electrocution, or lethal injection. In the way that he died, our Savior calls on us to respect the dignity of life--every life, even the life of the most hardened criminal. After all, Christ reassured St. Dismas on the cross that he would join Christ in paradise on the day of his death.

Catholic opposition to capital punishment is also a way of honoring all our saints and martyrs who died horrible deaths for their faith. Indeed, some of them died deaths by methods even more cruel than the cross.  During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Catholics were publicly hanged, drawn, and quartered, which meant that they were first hanged by the neck, taken down while still conscious, and then eviscerated and sometimes even castrated while still alive.  Their bodies were then pulled apart (quartered) to the delight of watching crowds. St. Edward Campion was executed in just this way.

Capital punishment, whether in its most benign or most malevolent form, degrades the societies that practice it, including the United States.  Our detractors point out that Catholics are far more vociferous when opposing abortion than we are when speaking out against capital punishment. Unfortunately, they are right.

Those of us who are Catholic should follow the examples of Pope Francis and Pope John Paul II and speak out publicly against the death penalty. Let us be guided by  Catechism, which clarifies that capital punishment is contrary to our Catholic faith.

Pope Francis opposes the death penalty.

 

Governor Landry Wants More Death Row Prisoners to Be Executed: I’m Opposed

More than 100 film industry leaders released a public letter to Governor Jeff Landry expressing their disapproval of Landry's efforts to expand the ways that death-row prisoners can be executed. “How can we,” the filmmakers wrote, “continue to conduct business within a state that contemplates the implementation of execution methods reminiscent of history's gravest atrocities?”

Governor Landy wants the Louisiana Legislature to pass a bill that would add electrocution and nitrogen gas as approved methods for killing condemned prisoners. I’m surprised he didn’t add fentanyl to his list. A hundred thousand Americans died from fentanyl overdoses last year, and no one complained that fentanyl is a painful way to die.

Of course, the morality of capital punishment doesn’t hinge on finding more humane ways to kill people. The guillotine, which extinguishes life instantaneously, probably inflicts less pain than electrocution, but that doesn’t make decapitation a morally acceptable method of execution.

Governor Landry is a Catholic, and as Robert Mann pointed out in a recent blog essay, the Catholic Catechism states the Church’s opposition to capital punishment, calling it “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” Even before the Catechism was amended in 2018 to stiffen the Church’s opposition to the death penalty, Pope John Paul II expressed his disapproval. In a homily delivered in St. Louis in 1999, he said this:

A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.

In short, the Catholic Church’s opposition to capital punishment is not an arcane and obscure snippet of Catholic dogma; it is an inextricable part of the Church’s affirmation of human life and human dignity—as is the Church’s opposition to abortion.

In my mind, Governor Landry, a good Catholic, is bound by his faith to oppose the death penalty in Louisiana, just as he opposes abortion.

57 people on Louisiana's Death Row
Image credit: NOLA.com

College borrowers who see their student-loan debt triple will never pay off their loans: The tragic story of Rick Tallini

Pope Francis once said that a life prison sentence is essentially a death sentence, and of course he is right.

Something similar can be said about college borrowers who see their debt load double, triple, or even quadruple. They've received a life sentence of indebtedness, and a death sentence to any dreams they may have about retiring or purchasing a home.

Here's an example of what I'm talking about. Rick Tallini borrowed $55,000 to go to law school back in the 1990s.  Had he gotten a good job immediately after graduating, he would have been fine. But Tallini didn't find that good job, and so he put his loans in deferment for extended periods of time, while interest accrued at 8 or 9 percent.

Around ten years after he graduated (according to a CNBC story), Tallini's loans went into default, and his student-loan creditor tacked on additional fees. By the time Tallini consolidated his loans, he owed $150,000--nearly three times what he borrowed. Apparently, his debt continued to grow due to accruing interest, and now he owes $330,000--six times what he borrowed!

Will Tallini ever pay off this debt?  Of course not. The federal government sentenced him to a lifetime of indebtedness--an economic death sentence. Although the CNBC story did not say, Tallini probably does not own his own home, and he probably has inadequate savings toward his retirement.

Mr. Tallini, who is 61 years old, really has only two options: He can file for bankruptcy and attempt to discharge his debt in an adversary proceeding. If he goes that route, he could be in litigation for years because the U.S. Department of Education and its proxy debt collectors will overwhelm him with their teams of heartless attorneys.  And he might not prevail.

Alternatively, Tallini can sign up for a long-term income-based repayment plan that can last 20 or 25 years.  He could be dead before his repayment obligations are met. And if he is fortunate to still be above ground when his income-based repayment plan terminates, the IRS will send him a bill for the forgiven amount of his loan because the IRS considers forgiven debt to be income.

In my view, Mr. Tallini's case demonstrates irrefutably that America is no longer a just society and our colleges and universities are no longer working for the public good. Higher education (including legal education) is a racket financed by student loans owed by people like Rick Tallini, who went to law school more than 20 yeas ago hoping to build a good and satisfying life.

And look at what he got instead. Crushing debt he will never pay off.

Rick Tallini owes $330,000 in student debt. Photo credit: CNBC

References

Annnie Nova. He had $55,000 in student loans, now he owes $330,000 . . . Here's how it happened. CNBC.com, May 6, 2018.

Annie Nova. These are the ways student loans stop people from buying houses. CNBCcom. March 31, 2018.

Louisiana man gets 10 years in prison for stealing a toolbox from a church: A plea for bipartisan cooperation to promote justice

Michael Duplessis, age 34, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing a toolbox from Holy Rosary Catholic Church in St. Amant, Louisiana. Duplessis was sentenced after he agreed to a plea deal to avoid the possibility of  a life sentence.

A life sentence for stealing a toolbox! How could that be?

Michael Duplessis: Sentenced to 10 years in prison for stealing a toolbox from Holy Rosary Church

Apparently, Duplessis is a repeat offender. He had previously been convicted of stealing a cellphone charger from a residence and later a boat battery. Under Louisiana's habitual offender law, Duplessis is a three-time loser and could have been sentenced to life in prison for lifting that toolbox. I imagine the plea bargain looked pretty good to him.

Obviously a law that can send a man to prison for the rest of his life for stealing a cellphone charger, a battery and a toolbox is unjust and inhumane. In fact, Pope Francis has said that life sentences are essentially death sentences.

Surely, reasonable people can work together to repeal such a barbaric statute.

So why aren't Republicans and Democrats working together to do that? In fact there are dozens of unjust laws that could be repealed. As I wrote awhile back, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Claire McCaskill introduced a bill to stop the federal government from garnishing the Social Security checks of elderly student-loan defaulters. Who in Congress could oppose such a bill?

Unfortunately, our elected representatives at the state and national level are so caught up in political warfare that nothing gets done. And the mainstream press has become so obsessed with criticizing President Trump that it has abandoned its traditional role of advocating for justice.

Just today, in my local newspaper, Richard Cohen, a syndicated columnist, published an essay that was nothing more than warmed over criticism of President Trump. In case the public had forgotten, Cohen reminded us that Trump unfairly criticized Senator John McCain and the Hispanic judge who presided over the Trump University litigation. Isn't there something more timely and important that Cohen can write about?

Enough already. Republicans and Democrats should look for problems they can solve together, and the press should resume its traditional roll of publicizing injustices like the one perpetuated on poor Mr. Duplessis. This is how democracy works after all, or how it used to work, before everyone in public life began behaving like children.

References

Richard Cohen. Can't anybody play this game? The Advocate (Baton Rouge), February 17, 2017, p. 5B.

David J. Mitchell. Man gets 10 years in burglary of church. The Advocate (Baton Rouge), February 17, 2016.

Kathy Schiffer, Pope Francis Opposes Capital Punishment; Calls Life Sentences for Violent Criminals "A Hidden Death Penalty." Seasons of Grace blog site, October 23, 2014.