In response to the death penalty being passed on Saddam Hussein, Cardinal Martino has commented:

"For me, punishing a crime with another crime, which is what killing for vindication is, would mean that we are still at the point of demanding an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth"

This has upset Jimmy Akin (and will no doubt also upset others), who protests that the Cardinal has used "sloppy language" that is "grossly misleading". Akin appeals to the Catechism (CC 2267) to support his claim:

… it is grossly misleading to refer to imposing the death penalty as "punishing a crime with another crime." The death penalty is not a crime legally, nor is it one in principle morally, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church indicates when it states: "The traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude, presupposing full ascertainment of the identity and responsibility of the offender, recourse to the death penalty, when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor" (CCC 2267).

But if this extract, and subsequent paragraphs, from the Catechism are read carefully, they support Cardinal Martino quite definitely. They say that the death penalty should only be imposed when there is no other way to protect society from the guilty aggressor. Consequently, it cannot be imposed by an appeal to justice, or an appeal to retribution, or an appeal to redemption by the suffering of the guilty, or by an appeal that it would bring some closure to the family or relations of the victim, or by an appeal that it would protect society from other, different aggressors — or any of the numerous ways in which people seek to support the death penalty. The death penalty can only be imposed if that is the only way to protect society from that guilty aggressor.

A look at John Paul's Evangelium Vitae makes that magisterial teaching quite clear:

the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society.

The death penalty cannot be justified for any other reason. Consequently, if it is imposed for any other reason, it becomes an unjustified killing. And an unjustified killing can legitimately be called a crime —

– which is what Cardinal Martino said.