Pope Francis Says Death Penalty ​“Abases Human Dignity,” is ​“Contrary to the Gospel”

Signaling a strength­en­ing of the Catholic Church’s offi­cial oppo­si­tion to cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment, Pope Francis (pic­tured) marked the 25^th anniver­sary of the Catholic Church’s pro­mul­ga­tion of amend­ments to its Catechism by declar­ing the death penal­ty ​“con­trary to the Gospel” and ​“an inhu­mane mea­sure that, regard­less of how it is car­ried out, abas­es human dig­ni­ty.” During Vatican cer­e­monies on October 11 com­mem­o­rat­ing the 1992 amend­ments, Pope Francis said that the death penal­ty is ​“inad­mis­si­ble” under any cir­cum­stances and that the sub­ject need­ed ​“a more ade­quate and coher­ent treat­ment” than it cur­rent­ly receives. The Catechism — the instruc­tive text for Catholics around the world — cur­rent­ly per­mits ​“recourse to the death penal­ty, if this is the only pos­si­ble way of effec­tive­ly defend­ing human lives against the unjust aggres­sor,” but giv­en mod­ern crime pre­ven­tion and incar­cer­a­tion prac­tices, its says ​“the cas­es in which the exe­cu­tion of the offend­er is an absolute neces­si­ty ​‘are very rare, if not prac­ti­cal­ly nonex­is­tent.’ ” Pope Francis called cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment ​“an attack on the invi­o­la­bil­i­ty and the dig­ni­ty of the per­son” and said that the approach to the issue by the Holy See has in the past been ​“more legal­is­tic than Christian.” The pon­tiff said that Church doc­trine is a ​“dynam­ic” process that ​“devel­ops [and] grows” over time, and it is there­fore nec­es­sary to reaf­firm in the Catechism ​“that no mat­ter how seri­ous the crime that has been com­mit­ted, the death penal­ty is inad­mis­si­ble because it is an attack on the invi­o­la­bil­i­ty and the dig­ni­ty of the per­son.” In October 2014, Pope Francis referred to the present Catechism in call­ing for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty, say­ing ​“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.” He repeat­ed that call dur­ing an his­toric address before a joint ses­sion of the United States Congress in September 2015, and urged Catholic lead­ers around the world to take action to halt all exe­cu­tions dur­ing the Church’s ​“Holy Year of Mercy” in 2016. Archbishop Emeritus Joseph Fiorenza — a for­mer pres­i­dent of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops — said the pope’s remarks have ​“put to rest” any doubt as to whether the death penal­ty is per­mit­ted under Catholic doc­trine. ​“This is Pope Francis’ mag­is­te­r­i­al teach­ing on this issue and as the faith­ful we have the respon­si­bil­i­ty to accept what the pope says,” said Fiorenza. Dianne Rust-Tierney, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said that the pope’s ​“moral clar­i­ty and lead­er­ship” are promis­ing to pro­po­nents of abo­li­tion. ​“We’ve got to show peo­ple that there is a bet­ter way, that this is a fun­da­men­tal­ly immoral prac­tice,” she said. The pope’s revi­sion ​“clos­es the loop­hole” that the Catechism had left open in the minds of some, accord­ing to Karen Clifton, exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Catholic Mobilizing Network. “[H]e makes it very clear,” said Clifton, that Catholics ​“need to meet peo­ple where they are and move them toward mer­cy and away from vengeance.” 

(N. Winfield, ​“Pope: Catholic guide needs updat­ing on death penal­ty issue,” Associated Press, October 11, 2017; K. Clarke, ​“Advocates for death penal­ty abo­li­tion encour­aged by Pope Francis state­ment,” America Magazine, October 16, 2017; ​“Pope Francis: The dynam­ic word of God can­not be moth-balled,” Vatican Radio, October 11, 2017.) Read the English lan­guage trans­la­tion of Pope Francis’s pre­pared remarks here. See Religion.