Originally published at The Catholic Thing
From the beginning, the living Tradition of the Church-as shown by the Didache, the most ancient non-biblical Christian writing-categorically repeated the commandment “You shall not kill”: “There are two ways, a way of life and a way of death; there is a great difference between them. . . .In accordance with the precept of the teaching: you shall not kill. . .you shall not put a child to death by abortion nor kill it once it is born. . . .The way of death is this. . .they show no compassion for the poor, they do not suffer with the suffering, they do not acknowledge their Creator, they kill their children and by abortion cause God’s creatures to perish; they drive away the needy, oppress the suffering, they are advocates of the rich and unjust judges of the poor; they are filled with every sin. May you be able to stay ever apart, o children, from all these sins!” As time passed, the Church’s Tradition has always consistently taught the absolute and unchanging value of the commandment “You shall not kill.” It is a known fact that in the first centuries, murder was put among the three most serious sins-along
