On Thursday evening, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo responded to the Pope’s new position opposing the death penalty. Pope Francis’s new draft of the catechism states, “The Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,’ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.” The death penalty is, in other words, obsolete.
In light of this statement, godly St. Cuomo immediately leapt to impose his theocratic views on his state. Here’s what he tweeted:
In the words of Senator Diane Feinstein (D-CA), the doctrine clearly lives loudly within Cuomo.
All of this does require us to ask a further question: just how far should this principle be extended? Why, for example, doesn’t Cuomo seek to restrict or bar abortion, given the Pope’s recent statements equating abortion with Nazi eugenics? Why doesn’t he seek to oppose same-sex marriage given the church’s stance on the issue? It turns out that Cuomo’s interest in doctrine only extends to the issues on which the pope agrees with him, not the issues on which he ought to agree with the pope.
So either Cuomo is a hypocrite or a theocrat. Pick one.