I started out anti-death penalty and switched positions after two years of fact checking and vetting the debate, factually, legally, philosophically and biblically, as presented, prior (CV below and fn 3), which, it appears, Fr. Felix did not read. His pattern.
Felix: Yes, all of scripture (including the teachings of Jesus) tells us THAT there will be a judgement day, when the righteous are rewarded and sinners punished. But that final judgement is up to GOD, not up to us.
7) Sharp: Precisely, the "final" judgement. No freshman Christian believes that any or all human deaths are the final judgment. The final judgement is that which is before God, by God, after our earthly deaths, whenever and whatever that death may be. No one believes that the final judgment is the earthly death. I am not sure Fr. Felix's point.
Felix: The death penalty (as practiced by human societies) is clearly against the will of God and the teachings of Jesus, no matter how many scriptural passages you misinterpret and misuse to argue the contrary.
8) Sharp: Felix doesn't tell us how the death penalty is so "clearly against the will of God " that the greatest of Experts could not see it for 2000 years. He can't, because it is absurd (1). Fr. Felix has, convincingly, shown his intentional lack of knowledge, throughout, and he gets no better.
Felix: I pray for a softening of your heart and the conversion of your mind, so that you may follow the teachings of Jesus Christ!
9) Sharp: As I and/or the Experts detailed, point by point, factually and rationally, as well as with over 2000 years of well known Catholic teachings, by the Experts, through today, Christianity was and is supportive of the death penalty (1), with the 30 years
(1995-2025) of anti-death penalty Church disasters, fully revealed (1,2,3).
(Fr. Felix's ) PS – I have indeed read much of your material, but simply don’t have the time to refute your biblical mis interpretations in detail, point by point.
Sharp: Nonsense, as rebutted, in 1) Sharp, above.
==========================
First email from Fr. Felix. I respond after his email, just below
Monday, August 11, 2025 at 08:02:59 PM CDT, Fr, Felix Just, S.J. wrote to Dudley Sharp
(Fr. Felix asks) Are you a Christian? If so, please read and take to heart Matthew 5:38-48. Its application to the Church’s teaching about immorality of the Death Penalty should be obvious.
If not, then please don’t waste your time emailing people who are supposed to listen to the teachings of JESUS, rather than modern people who disagree with our Lord!
Sincerely, Fr. Felix Just, S.J.
Sharp's reply to Fr. Felix's first email
Dear Father:
I had Jesus' words, throughout (fn 1), in support of the death penalty, as you received and failed to read. Matthew 5 was covered, as herein.
Willful ignorance is why I felt the need to put all of that material together, in order to counter ignorance. You would not consider it, again, and likely again and again . . . the ignorance I was trying to counter (see also response to Fr. Felix's second email, above).
You are unaware that your Matthew text is dealing with personal disputes/choices and their personal resolutions, as opposed to civil governments and their uses of law, law enforcement and sanction, as I had detailed for you, prior, with your willful ignorance triumphant.
Here are some 40 commentaries. Please read them:
There is a reason why 2000 years of the greatest Doctors and Fathers of the Church, Popes and Saints, Church leadership, biblical scholars and theologians (added later as "Experts") found biblical support for the death penalty and why many still do and why they did not and do not read that text the way that you and others have, as I detailed and, it appears, you did not read.
Read all of Matthew 5:1-48. Start here, reading the footnotes, the referenced biblical texts, then move on to the commentaries, please:
My explanation is a very clear reading of the text and is supported by nearly 2000 years of Church teachings (added later as "Experts"), by the most respected of commentaries (added later as "Experts"), rebutted by none, that I am aware of.
One of the first acts of the Holy Ghost was to kill Ananias and his wife Sapphira, two early Christians. No trial, no appeals, just killed, on the spot, by the Holy Ghost. Why? For lying and, most likely, pride, as well, and. importantly, it was an example, for all others, as within that Christian gathering, where all could see, with the Holy Ghost, therein, going beyond torah, adding additional death penalty sins/crimes to those in the Mosaic Law, with this, just below, as succinct as it gets, with regard to Jesus and His death penalty support:
"It should not be overlooked, in seeking to discover “the mind of Jesus Christ” on the issue of murder and its punishments, that He goes beyond torah to the statement that even verbal abuse makes one deserving of “the hell of fire” (in Matthew 5)."
"Far from releasing believers from prior law, Jesus was a “hard liner” who made things even tougher, stating that He has come not “to abolish the law and the prophets . . . but to fulfill them.” (in Matthew 5), offering even stronger interpretations than in the original (Matthew 5:17-22)."
"Indeed, Jesus admonishes the Pharisees not to misuse torah for their own ends, but to honor God and torah."
"And of all the text in the Bible, which one does Jesus select to emphasize that crucial point? 'HE WHO SPEAKS EVIL OF FATHER OR MOTHER, LET HIM BE PUT TO DEATH' (Matthew 15:1-9)." Biblical scholar, Duke Divinity School, Professor Lloyd R. Bailey’s book Capital Punishment: What the Bible Says, Abingdon Press (see many other biblical writings by Bailey)
Added later: Here are 40 biblical Commentaries on the subject text (6), which will
explain why Jesus meant what He said, as He, always, does.
Blessings to you and all of yours.
May God's grace be with you, forever, Dudley
=======
Extras
"It's Just Wrong", Catholic (Bruenig) Anti-Death Penalty Nonsense
Another Christian Anti-death Penalty Disaster
=========
Footnotes
fn 1) A full review by the Experts
Religion and the Death Penalty
fn 2) Pope John Paul II: His death penalty errors
and
Catechism & State Protection: The Gross Negligence of the Holy See
and
The Catholic Church & The Death Penalty
13 (15) Factual Errors: 2018 CCC 2267 amendment
and
Catechism & The Death Penalty Problems: Section 2267:
A Rational Deconstruction of Catholic Revisionism, 1995-2019
fn 3) The Church uses secular, anti-death penalty material without fact checking, vetting or critical thinking and avoids all pro-death penalty material and experts, both which has resulted in decades old errors by the Church, with no sign of correction. Again, this is not in dispute, as detailed, with sources:
Research, w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required of everyone in a public policy debate and which rebut all anti-death penalty claims.
The media/academic norm is to use anti-death penalty material, refuse to fact check or vet it and avoid all pro-death penalty research and experts. How will you know that is true? You haven't seen this material, prior.
a) The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
b) Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
7 pro-death penalty experts included
c) 600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
fn 4) The Death Penalty: Mercy, Expiation, Redemption & Salvation
fn 5) These 40 commentaries explain that in detail. Read them.
and
here is a solid Catholic commentator
Haydock's Matthew 7
fn 6) Here are 40 biblical Commentaries on the subject text, which will
explain why Jesus meant what He said, as He, always, does
======
Extra
The Jesuit's decided to keep this wildly inaccurate nonsense on their site, for 4 1/2 years. That says a lot about today's Church.
Full Rebuttal: The Jesuits & Shannon Evans' John 8 -
"How Jesus’ Position on the Death Penalty Informs Mine"
======================================================================================================================
"Rebuttal: Florida Bishops Novena To End Death Penalty"
To: Board of Directors, Florida Conference of Catholic Bishops
bcc: Biblical & Theological Scholars, United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, The Tablet, First Things, National Catholic Reporter, America, Our Sunday Visitor, American Society of Religion, Oxford Academic, Catholic Media Association (Board of Directors), Jesuits-Global, Vatican News, Crux, Catholic News Service (Rome), Global Sisters Report, Crisis Magazine, EWTN, The Catholic Herald (UK), Catholic Digest, Congregation of St. Joseph, Today's Catholic, U.S. Catholic, The Irish Catholic, The Catholic Network, Knights of Columbus, Catholic Mobilization Network, more at bottom
and
Governor Ron DeSantis and staff
Florida House and Senate and staff
Attorney General James Uthmeier and staff
Florida Prosecuting Attorneys Association
Florida Law Enforcement
Media Throughout Florida
Subject: Rebuttal: Florida Bishops Novena To End Death Penalty
From: Dudley Sharp, independent researcher, death penalty expert, former opponent, 832-439-2113, CV at bottom
Preface
1) For 30 years, 1995 and forward, The Church has refused to fact check, vet and use
critical thinking for the obvious factual and rational errors made by Pope John Paul II,
resulting in those easily found errors being placed into the amended 1997 CCC, making it invalid. Those errors are not in dispute, as detailed, with sources:
a) Pope John Paul II: His death penalty errors, uncorrected since 1995
b) Read footnote 4, first, then read the rest
Catechism & State Protection
======
2) The factual and rational errors from the1997/2018 amended CCCs are
rebutted by me and others. The biblical and theological errors are rebutted
by those experts, as detailed, with sources:
a) The Catholic Church & The Death Penalty
13 (15) Factual Errors: 2018 CCC 2267 amendment
b) Catechism & The Death Penalty Problems: Section 2267:
A Rational Deconstruction of Catholic Revisionism, 1995-2019
3) The Church uses secular, anti-death penalty material without fact checking, vetting or critical thinking and avoids all pro-death penalty material and experts, both which has resulted in decades old errors by the Church, with no sign of correction.. Again, this is not in dispute, as detailed, with sources:
Research, w/sources, w/fact checking/vetting & critical thinking, as required
of everyone in a public policy debate and which rebut all anti-death penalty
claims.
The media/academic norm is to use anti-death penalty material, refuse to fact check or vet it and avoid all pro-death penalty research and experts. How will you know that is true? You haven't seen this material, prior.
a) The Death Penalty: Justice & Saving More Innocents
b) Students, Academics & Journalists: Death Penalty Research
7 pro-death penalty experts included
c) 600+ pro death penalty quotes from murder victim's families &
3300+ from some of the greatest thinkers in history
In Closing
Will the Florida Bishops or the Church care? They seem to have cared, very
much, to avoid fact checking and vetting, as they have done for 30 years. The
lack of fact checking and vetting must be intentional. Will that change?
======
Partial CV
addl bcc: (primarily) Catholic institutions, worldwide
Ignatian Solitary Network , Glenmary Challenge Magazine, Catholic Review,
Archdiocese of Boston, The Compass, The Sentinel, Roman Catheolic
Communicators of Canada, Novalis Publishing Archdiocese of St. Louis & St. Louis
Review, Our Northland Diocese & Diocese of Crookston, Catholic New York,
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(The Media Project), Archdiocese of Louisville, Global Pulse, UCA NEWS,
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Institute, The Word On Fire, Holy See Mission, The Witherspoon Institute,
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Broadview, Duke Divinity School. Religion Unplugged, The Associated Church Press, The Christian Recorder, PCUSA.org, Prison Fellowship, Pennsylvania Prison Society, Archdiocese of Miami, Augustinian Defenders of the Rights of the Poor (ADROP), Order of Malta, Catholic Prison Ministries Coalition, Virginia Catholic Conference & Diocese of Richmond, All Students & Teachers St. Joseph's Academy (Baton Rouge), Loyola U., Holy Trinity Catholic Church (Washington DC), Archdiocese of San Antonio, DeSales Media Group & Diocese of Brooklyn, RENEW Intl., Angelus News, Florida Catholic, Catholic Standard and Archdiocese of Washington DC, Oklahoma Diocese, Where Peter Is, The Wanderer, Nebraska Diocese, The Dialog & Diocese of Wilmington, Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston, Catholic Herald, Catholic Philly &Philadelphia Archdiocese, Intermountain Catholic & Diocese of Salt Lake City, Opus Dei, Notre Dame Observer, Diocese of Raleigh, Diocese of Scranton, Renew Intl., Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), Archdiocese of Cincinnati, Catholic League, The Sisters of Saint Dominic (Blauvelt, New York), The Catholic Telegraph, Church Militant, The Catholic Sun, New Advent, The (Fordham U) Observer, St. Patrick Catholic Community (Scottsdale, Az.), Diocese of St. Cloud, Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Diocese of Tucson, Catholic Daughters of America, The Record &Archdiocese of Louisville, The Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Oklahoma Faith Network, OKLAHOMA STATE COUNCIL FELLOWSHIP OF CHURCHES, Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, Episcopal Diocese of Oklahoma, Catholic Conference of Oklahoma, Hope For Generations, Young Israel, Torah in Motion, World Mizrachi, Jewish Federation (Tulsa, Oklahoma), The Synagogue Congregation B'nai Emunah (Oklahoma) Temple B'nai Israel (Oklahoma), Oklahoma Center for Community and Justice, Tulsa Metropolitan Ministries (Oklahoma), Family Promise of Tulsa County (Oklahoma), Sacred Heart Major Seminary, Churches throughout Oklahoma, Oklahoma Baptist Convention, many more
U of Notre Dame Institutions (Indiana)
Exoneration Justice Clinic (Notre Dame Law School), Klau Institute of Civil and
Human Rights, G. Marcus Cole, Dean, Notre Dame Law School, ND's de Nicola
Center for Ethics and Culture, ND's Tocqueville Program for Inquiry into Religion
and Public Life, ND's Program on Church, State & Society, All Professors, Notre
Dame Law School, ND's Center for Social Concerns, Gallivan Journalism Program,
ND Debate Team, ND's Dept. Of Theology, Notre Dame Magazine, The (ND)
Observer, Notre Dame News and WSND Radio-FM, South Bend Tribune
and AWAKE
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Journal, The Conversation, Kansas City Star, Baltimore Sun, Associated Press,
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Connacht Tribune, LADBIBLE, The Journal, Student Independent News, Galway
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The Cast of The Exonerated & Galway Actors Workshop,
and many more
