What was once a common part of 19th-century life is depicted in the color engraving “An Execution in Rome for Murder, 1820,” by Richard Bridgens (1785-1846).
In this issue’s cover story, Peter Jesserer Smith traces the development of the Church’s teaching on capital punishment in light of Pope Francis’ revision to the Catechism of the Catholic Church declaring the death penalty “inadmissible.”
Archbishop José H. Gomez explains why the revision is an “authentic development” of doctrine championed by St. Pope John Paul II, and longtime death penalty abolition advocate and LA priest Father Chris Ponnet weighs in on the change.
A different direction
By Archbishop José H. Gomez
The death penalty divide
By Peter Jesserer Smith
Capital punishment in California
By R.W. Dellinger
A city of young saints
By Clara Fox
Getting with the summer program
By R.W. Dellinger
Playing it forward
By Tom Hoffarth
No longer unthinkable
By John L. Allen Jr.
Catherine's letters to the future
By Kathryn Jean Lopez
Clerical pitfalls
By Russell Shaw
Words of wisdom
By Ruben Navarrette
A different kind of bomb
By Carl Kozlowski
From Pico to Pulitzer
By Heather King
