Entries tagged with “Pope Francis”
Facts & Research
Religion
,Jan 10, 2024
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…
Facts & Research
Religion
,Oct 06, 2020
New Papal Encyclical Tells Catholics There is ‘No Stepping Back’ From Opposition to Death Penalty
A new papal encyclical letter tells Catholics around the world that “[t]here can be no stepping back” from the Church’s formal opposition to the death…
Facts & Research
Religion
,Sep 08, 2022
News Brief: Pope Francis Calls for Prayer to Abolish the Death Penalty
Pope Francis has issued a renewed call to “all people of good will to mobilize for the abolition of the death penalty throughout the world,” devoting the September 2022 worldwide prayer intention of his papacy to ending capital punishment. In a video announcing his monthly prayer intention, the pontiff said, “Capital punishment offers no justice to victims, but rather encourages revenge. And it prevents any possibility of undoing a possible miscarriage of…
Policy Issues
International
,Religion
,Oct 26, 2020
Orthodox Church Patriarch Calls Death Penalty Incompatible with Christian Beliefs
The leader of the world’s second largest Christian denomination has joined with the Roman Catholic Church in declaring the death penalty fundamentally incompatible with Christian teachings. In an interview with Vatican News on October 20, 2020, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople, the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, called opposition to the death penalty “the logical and moral consequence” of adherence to Christian principles of human…
Facts & Research
Religion
,Aug 02, 2018
The 2018 Revised Catholic Catechism
On August 2, 2018, the Vatican announced that it had formally changed the official Catechism of the Catholic Church on the death penalty, calling capital punishment “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” and deeming it “inadmissible” in all…