During his 26 years as leader of the Roman Catholic Church, the late Pope John Paul II fre­quent­ly called for an end to the death penal­ty. Among his state­ments on this issue were the fol­low­ing:

May the death penal­ty, an unwor­thy pun­ish­ment still used in some coun­tries, be abol­ished through­out the world.” (Prayer at the Papal Mass at Regina Coeli Prison in Rome, July 9, 2000).

A sign of hope is the increas­ing recog­ni­tion that the dig­ni­ty of human life must nev­er be tak­en away, even in the case of some­one who has done great evil. Modern soci­ety has the means of pro­tect­ing itself, with­out defin­i­tive­ly deny­ing crim­i­nals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recent­ly at Christmas for a con­sen­sus to end the death penal­ty, which is both cru­el and unnec­es­sary.” (Homily at the Papal Mass in the Trans World Dome, St. Louis, Missouri, January 27, 1999).

Read addi­tion­al state­ments by Pope John Paul II on cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment. See also a recent poll show­ing a shift in U.S. Catholic opin­ion on the death penalty.

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