Catholic Organizers See ​“Renewed Momentum” for Death Penalty Abolition from Pope Francis’ Teachings

In 2018, Pope Francis for­mal­ly revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church — its core teach­ings — to oppose the death penal­ty. Characterizing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment as ​“an attack on the invi­o­la­bil­i­ty and dig­ni­ty of the per­son,” he wrote that the Catholic Church ​“works with deter­mi­na­tion for its abo­li­tion world­wide.” This revi­sion updat­ed a 1997 Catechism edit by Pope John Paul II that per­mit­ted the death penal­ty in rare cas­es where it was deemed ​“the only pos­si­ble way of effec­tive­ly defend­ing human lives against the unjust aggres­sor.” In the five years since Pope Francis affirmed the Church’s abo­li­tion­ist stance, OSV News report­ed that Catholic activists have seen ​“renewed momen­tum” to end the prac­tice in the United States. 

“We’ve seen an impres­sive and grow­ing num­ber of Catholics come out in full force with con­sis­tent oppo­si­tion to sched­uled exe­cu­tions, faith­ful advo­ca­cy that would lim­it or elim­i­nate the death penal­ty, and fer­vent prayer that the dig­ni­ty of life will be upheld for all peo­ple, even those among us who have com­mit­ted grave harm,” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Catholic Mobilizing Network, told OSV News. She not­ed that since 2018, three states abol­ished the death penal­ty and six imposed a mora­to­ri­um on exe­cu­tions. She also argued that Pope Francis’ revi­sion restored ​“a long his­to­ry of the Catholic Church’s oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty” and pro­vid­ed ​“crys­tal clar­i­ty” on the Church’s stance: ​“there are no more ​‘rare cas­es,’ no more loopholes…the death penal­ty is inad­mis­si­ble in all instances, full stop.” 

In 2020, Pope Francis affirmed the revi­sion in a pub­lished let­ter that cit­ed cen­turies of death penal­ty oppo­si­tion by lead­ing Catholic schol­ars and cler­gy. He called upon ​“all Christians and peo­ple of good will” to work for ​“the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty, legal or ille­gal, in all its forms.” Pope Francis and oth­er Catholic lead­ers have pub­licly sup­port­ed clemen­cy efforts and called on state exec­u­tives to exer­cise mer­cy in indi­vid­ual cas­es. In 2021, Archbishop and Apostolic Nuncio Christopher Pierre deliv­ered a mes­sage from Pope Francis to Missouri Governor Mike Parson ask­ing for clemen­cy for Ernest Johnson. He asked Governor Parson not to allow ​“the atroc­i­ty of…crimes to feed a desire for vengeance” and instead seek to restrain all types of vio­lence, includ­ing ​“the vio­lence of legal exe­cu­tion.” However, Missouri pro­ceed­ed with the exe­cu­tion. Last September, the Vatican urged Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards to use his exec­u­tive author­i­ty to com­mute the sen­tences of the state’s entire death row; the effort stalled as Governor Edwards faced oppo­si­tion from Attorney General and Governor-elect Jeff Landry and the Louisiana Board of Pardons and Committee on Parole. 

The ​“firm rejec­tion of the death penal­ty shows to what extent it is pos­si­ble to rec­og­nize the inalien­able dig­ni­ty of every human being and to accept that he or she has a place in this uni­verse,” Pope Francis wrote in his 2020 let­ter. He issued a renewed call for prayer in 2022 in which he declared that ​“the death penal­ty is moral­ly inad­mis­si­ble, for it destroys the most impor­tant gift we have received: life.”