The precise question at issue in this essay is the moral standing of capital punishment. Taking as a starting point the teachings of the largest Christian (Catholic) denomination, some argue that the presentation of capital punishment in the 1992 Catechism (#2266) certainly differs in restrictiveness from the teaching of the 1566 Catechism. And that the revised Catechism of 1997 is even more restrictive. Let us examine these and other aspects of the morality of capital punishment. The Catechism (1997) n. 2267 says, in part, "...the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude the use of the death penalty, if this is the only possible way to effectively defend human lives against the unjust aggressor....""Today , in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities that the State has to effectively prevent crime, making those who have committed a crime incapable of harming... the cases in which the execution of the criminal is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent » (CCC n. 2267). Classic elements of conventional Catholic teaching therefore remain: 1) the Church does not deny the "right" to resort to the death penalty (i.e. that it is not morally prohibited because it is intrinsically evil); 2) the official teachers of the Church clearly teach that this appeal is strictly limited, indeed so strictly limited as to be "practically non-existent". Capital punishment ironically is found at the beginning of Christianity. The Lord Jesus, the Founder of Christianity, was himself victim of capital punishment, as were most of the Apostles and many of the first martyrs. The canonical scriptures were rarely invoked to question leaders… middle of paper . ..... unique dignity of each person, the truth that God is the Lord of Life and not us, and the example and teaching of Jesus on mercy and forgiveness. This debate will and should continue as the conditional premise makes it increasingly difficult to argue that capital punishment is truly a “necessity” in current modern circumstances, much less “an absolute necessity” to effectively defend human lives against the unjust aggressor. WORKS CITED: Catechism of the Catholic Church http://www.christusrex.org /www1/CDHN/ccc.html City of Godhttp://www.ccel.org/fathers/NPNF1-02/New Catholic Encyclopedia v. 14 (1967), 779-781.Rotelle,J. and. The Works of Augustine, Sermons III/1 (Brooklyn: New City Press, 1990) pp. 312-313; original in PL 38:110-111.Summa Theologica.http://www.newadvent.org/summa/