Indeed, since Romans 13:4 refers to capital punishment, Pius is therefore if anything implicitly saying that capital punishment is of abiding relevance – the opposite of what Fastiggi claims the passage says. In other words, in Fastiggi’s view, a Catholic is at liberty to reject the clear and consistent teaching of all previous popes for two millennia – not to mention Scripture and the Fathers and Doctors of the Church – yet is not at liberty to reject the ambiguous-at-best teaching of a single recent pope, even though it appears to conflict with all previous teaching.