In a posi­tion paper issued this month dur­ing the World Congress Against the Death Penalty in Paris, the Vatican said that the death penal­ty ​“is not only a refusal of the right to life, but it also is an affront to human dig­ni­ty.” Echoing the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the paper not­ed that while gov­ern­ments have an oblig­a­tion to pro­tect their cit­i­zens, ​“today it tru­ly is dif­fi­cult to jus­ti­fy” using cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment when oth­er means of pro­tec­tion, such as life in prison, are pos­si­ble. The Vatican also gave sup­port to all inter­na­tion­al cam­paigns to pro­claim a mora­to­ri­um on the use of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and the abo­li­tion of the death penal­ty world­wide.

​“The Holy See takes this occas­sion to wel­come and affirm again its sup­port for all ini­tia­tives aimed at defend­ing the inher­ent and invi­o­lable val­ue of all human life .… Consciences have been awak­ened by the need for a great recog­ni­tion of the inalien­able dig­ni­ty of human beings and by the uni­ver­sal­i­ty and integri­ty of human rights, begin­ning with the right to life,” the Vatican stat­ed. The Holy See added that the death penal­ty car­ries ​“numer­ous risks,” includ­ing the dan­ger of pun­ish­ing inno­cent peo­ple, and that cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment pro­motes ​“vio­lent forms of revenge rather than a true sense of social jus­tice.” The paper con­clud­ed that the death penal­ty con­tributes to a ​“cul­ture of vio­lence” and that for Christians it shows ​“a con­tempt for the Gospel teach­ing on forgiveness.” 

(Catholic News Service, February 7, 2007). See New Voices and Religion.

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