Thank you very much for reaching out to me as I, Pope Francis I, appreciate your appreciation in me, and also, your appreciation of God’s word. The simplest answer to your question that you ask is to look at what past scriptures have said, because they show that torture is never the right option in the eyes of God. The definition of torture is “the act of inflicting excruciating pain, as punishment or revenge, as a means of getting a confession or information, or for sheer cruelty.” (Dictionary.com) and we do not stand for that kind of action. When making a decision, if there is any intent of harming others, we, the Catholic Church believes that that is a sin. And especially with an intent of cruelty, we believe that torture is not acceptable, …show more content…
The Catechism states that “It is also blasphemous to make use of God's name to cover up criminal practices, to reduce peoples to servitude, to torture persons or put them to death. The misuse of God's name to commit a crime can provoke others to repudiate religion. ” (Catechism 2148) Although we cannot perform vengeance, God is called to perform vengeance on us. We are expected to ‘love our enemies’ and treat everyone with kindness. Next, these writings stated that, “Torture which uses physical or moral violence to extract confessions, punish the guilty, frighten opponents, or satisfy hatred is contrary to respect for the person and for human dignity. ” (Catechism 2297) This means that even torturing as a way to gain knowledge as a way of protection, is unethical and should not be used at any state in time. Finally, the Catechism firmly stated that “In the Sermon on the Mount, the Lord recalls the commandment, "You shall not kill," and adds to it the proscription of anger, hatred, and vengeance.” (Catechism 2262) What this states is that even killing is just as bad as taking vengeance and therefore it is