Pope Leo XIV Calls Death Penalty ​“Inadmissible,” Lends Support to U.S. Abolition Efforts

On April 24, 2026, Pope Leo XIV deliv­ered a video mes­sage offer­ing his sup­port and bless­ings to those work­ing ​“for the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty in the United States of America and around the world.” His mes­sage was shared at DePaul University in the Pope’s home city of Chicago, for an event titled ​“A Beacon of Light in Darkness,” mark­ing the 15^th anniver­sary of Illinois’ abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty. Among those par­tic­i­pat­ing in the event were not­ed author and activist Sister Helen Prejean and for­mer Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, who signed the state’s abo­li­tion bill into law in 2011.

Pope Leo said his mes­sage was based on the sanc­ti­ty of human life. ​“The Catholic Church has con­sis­tent­ly taught that each human life, from the moment of con­cep­tion until nat­ur­al death, is sacred and deserves to be pro­tect­ed,” he said. ​“Indeed, the right to life is the very foun­da­tion of every oth­er human right.” Pope Leo went on to affirm that this dig­ni­ty endures, regard­less of crimes a per­son has com­mit­ted, and that mod­ern deten­tion sys­tems are capa­ble of pro­vid­ing pub­lic safe­ty with­out rely­ing on executions.

Referring to the Catholic Catechism, Pope Leo declared ​“that the death penal­ty is inad­mis­si­ble because it is an attack on the invi­o­la­bil­i­ty and dig­ni­ty of the per­son.” He offered his explic­it sup­port for those work­ing to abol­ish the death penal­ty in the U.S. and across the world, pray­ing that their ​“efforts will lead to a greater acknowl­edge­ment of the dig­ni­ty of every per­son, and will inspire oth­ers to work for the same just cause.” Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, exec­u­tive direc­tor of Catholic Mobilizing Network, said Pope Leo’s mes­sage ​“makes it crys­tal clear that the death penal­ty is a pri­or­i­ty for the uni­ver­sal Church,” and wel­comed the voice of the first American pope in cur­rent abolition efforts.

Pope Leo’s state­ment reflects the Catholic Church’s cur­rent teach­ings, which Pope Francis revised in 2018, and built on Pope John Paul II​’s long­stand­ing calls to end the use of capital punishment.