“Justice will never be reached by killing a human being”, Pope Francis, quoting Dostoyevsky, tells campaigners for the end of the death penalty. "Today the death penalty is inadmissible, no matter how serious the crime of the condemned. It is an offence against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person that contradicts God’s plan for man and society and His merciful justice, and it impedes fulfilling the just end of the punishments. It does not do justice to the victims, but foments vengeance."
Dostoyevsky was my favourite novelist when I was an immature sixteen-year-old, but I never took him for a moralist: he was, in spite of his Polish surname, a racialist hater of Poles. As for this Pope, I take his febrile burblings with a bucket of salt.
Dostoyevsky was my favourite novelist when I was an immature sixteen-year-old, but I never took him for a moralist: he was, in spite of his Polish surname, a racialist hater of Poles. As for this Pope, I take his febrile burblings with a bucket of salt.
I am heartily in favour of capital punishment, cruel and usual, for those crimes which cry out for it.
Winston Churchill, apparently, wanted Hitler publicly executed by elecric chair in Trafalgar Square. Low voltage and plenty of smoke. Yes indeed!
Winston Churchill, apparently, wanted Hitler publicly executed by elecric chair in Trafalgar Square. Low voltage and plenty of smoke. Yes indeed!
