Tennessee “Bishops” Promote Heresy Against Church’s Perennial Teaching on Capital Punishment
The Catholic News Agency portal (December 8, 2025) reports that “Catholic” leaders in Tennessee joined ecumenical activists demanding abolition of capital punishment. Rick Musacchio of the Tennessee “Catholic” Conference invoked statements attributed to post-conciliar antipopes to claim opposition to executions constitutes “Gospel value.” This blasphemous distortion of Catholic doctrine constitutes open rebellion against two millennia of magisterial teaching.
Subversion of Divine Justice Through False Mercy
The article states:
“The death penalty is simply an affront to that Gospel value. That has been a refrain of the last four popes of the Catholic Church”
This brazen lie contradicts the Church’s solemn definitions:
Neque enim potestas gladii ad maleficos ulciscendos inimica est praecepto quo prohibemur occidere (“Nor is the power of the sword for punishing evildoers contrary to the commandment which forbids killing” – St. Augustine, De Libero Arbitrio 1.5). Pope Pius XII explicitly confirmed in 1952 that the state’s right to execute criminals remains “an act of homage paid to the divine majesty, when the death penalty is inflicted on the guilty according to law” (Address to Catholic Jurists).
Sacrilegious Equivocation Between Innocent and Guilty
Musacchio’s claim that one cannot be “pro-life while supporting capital punishment” constitutes theological fraud. The Church has always distinguished between:
- The innocent life of the unborn (absolute protection)
- The forfeited life of convicted murderers (conditional protection)
As Pope Innocent III declared at the Fourth Lateran Council: “The secular power can, without mortal sin, exercise judgment of blood, provided that it punishes with justice, not out of hatred, with prudence, not precipitation” (Canon 18). The Tennessee “bishops” erase this distinction – a heresy condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors (1864):
“The Church has not the power of using force, nor has she any temporal power, direct or indirect.” (Error #24)
Ecumenical Apostasy and Naturalistic Sentimentalism
The article documents the Tennessee “Catholic” Conference’s collaboration with Presbyterian and Baptist leaders at an event organized by Tennesseans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty. This ecumenical masquerade culminates in Pastor Davie Tucker’s statement:
“killing Mr. Nichols is not going to take away the loss, and the hole, and the pain, and trauma”
Such therapeutic moralism rejects the Church’s teaching that capital punishment serves four legitimate ends:
- Retributive justice (Romans 13:4)
- Protection of society
- Deterrence of future crimes
- Restoration of moral order
Pope Leo XIII’s encyclical Libertas (1888) condemns this naturalistic reductionism: “The more a government is separated from the Church… the more it tends to disregard justice and human rights” (¶41). The “bishops'” silence about the supernatural purpose of punishment – the criminal’s soul and society’s moral health – reveals their apostate naturalism.
Invalid Sacraments and False Shepherds
The article cites “Bishop” David Talley of Memphis, “Bishop” Mark Beckman of Knoxville, and “Bishop” J. Mark Spalding of Nashville. Given their post-1968 “ordinations” under Paul VI’s invalid rites (Sacramentum Ordinis), these men lack apostolic succession. Their joint statement that “the death penalty extinguishes the chance for repentance” constitutes blasphemy against divine mercy – as if God’s grace were limited by earthly execution!
Contrast this with St. Thomas Aquinas: “The death inflicted by the judge profits the sinner, if he die in a state of grace, for it expiates all the punishment due to sin” (Summa Theologiae II-II.25.6 ad 3). The Church has always taught that a criminal’s execution might be his greatest mercy – a final opportunity to make perfect contrition.
Rejection of Christ’s Social Kingship
Nowhere do these false shepherds mention Christ’s royal authority over civil governments – a dogma solemnly defined in Pius XI’s Quas Primas (1925):
“Rulers of states… fulfill this duty themselves and with their people, if they wish to maintain their authority inviolate and contribute to the increase of their homeland’s happiness.” (¶19)
Their silence betrays acceptance of the Masonic lie that Church and State must be separated – error #55 in Pius IX’s Syllabus. By refusing to proclaim Christ’s social reign, these hirelings enable the culture of death they pretend to oppose.
Conclusion: Wolves in Shepherd’s Clothing
This grotesque theater exposes the conciliar sect’s true nature: a synthetic religion crafting “Gospel values” to suit modern sensibilities. As Pius X warned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), Modernists reduce faith to “experience” divorced from dogma. The Tennessee activists prove this by citing antipopes while ignoring two millennia of consistent magisterial teaching.
True Catholics recognize these “bishops” as apostates from Catholic tradition. Their abolitionist crusade constitutes not mercy, but rebellion against divine justice – a satanic parody of compassion that endangers souls and societies alike.
Source:
Tennessee faith leaders call on Gov. Lee to stop executions (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 08.12.2025