Pope Francis called for an end to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment in an address on October 23 to the International Association on Penal Law. ​“It is impos­si­ble to imag­ine that states today can­not make use of anoth­er means than cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment to defend peo­ples’ lives from an unjust aggres­sor,” the Catholic leader said. He cit­ed the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which says that the death penal­ty can be used only if it is the ​“only pos­si­ble way of effec­tive­ly defend­ing human lives against the unjust aggres­sor,” and that mod­ern alter­na­tives for pro­tect­ing soci­ety mean that ​“cas­es in which the exe­cu­tion of the offend­er is an absolute neces­si­ty are very rare, if not prac­ti­cal­ly nonex­is­tent.” Pope Francis said, ​“All Christians and peo­ple of good will are thus called today to strug­gle not only for abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty, whether it be legal or ille­gal and in all its forms, but also to improve prison con­di­tions, out of respect for the human dig­ni­ty of per­sons deprived of their lib­er­ty.” In dis­cussing a vari­ety of crim­i­nal jus­tice issues, he cri­tiqued the ten­den­cy to focus sole­ly on pun­ish­ment, rather than address­ing broad­er social issues.

(F. Rocca, ​“Pope Francis calls for abol­ish­ing death penal­ty and life impris­on­ment,” Catholic News Service, October 23, 2014; Photo cred­it: CNS/​Paul Haring.) See New Voices and Religion.

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