T0rture: Right and Wrong

Tom K. at Disputations does what I do not have the patience to do:  round-up the Church teachings on the immorality of torture.

Noted many times by others but worth repeating here is all too common habit of Catholic dissenters to place their local politics over and above the authority of the magisterium.  Among Catholics on the left, the Church is wrong on all issues that involve the libertine use of one's pelvic area.  Among Catholics on the right, it seems that the Church is wrong on all issues having to do with the just use of violence (there is such a thing!) and the imperative of the Christian to pursue peace.

It is striking--though completely predictable--that Catholics who defend the moral use of torture use the argumentative templates of those who defend abortion, SSM, etc.  These arguments are always utilitarian and consequentialist; that is, what determines the rightness or wrongness of a human act is the amount of good or evil that results from the act.  This is not Catholic moral theology. 

There is Right and there is Wrong.  The physical and/or moral torture of another human being is always wrong.  Nothing can change this, most especially appeals to consequentialist/utilitarian considerations.

Follow HancAquam ------------>