The Catechism of the Catholic Church and the encyclical Letter Evangelium vitae admit that the death penalty may be legitimate, but only in those «rare, virtually non-existent» cases where the public authorities have no other way of defending their subjects' safety. A «Commission for the Revision of the Catechism», which Cardinal Ratzinger himself thinks might be set up, could take this line of argument two steps further, positing that: 1. capital punishment is unlawful, in such countries as have safe prisons; 2. inflicting death as a punishment is irreconcilable whit the view that, for awareness of man's dignity to grow, it is essential that punishment have a «medicinal» as well as «vindictive» function.
