VATICAN CITY (CNS) — The death penalty is an affront to human dignity that gives no solace to victims and denies the likelihood for conversion of those that commit serious crimes, Pope Francis said.
The growing calls all over the world for an end to capital punishment are “an indication of hope” for the church, the pope said in a video message released by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network Aug. 31.
“Capital punishment offers no justice to victims, but moderately encourages revenge. And it prevents any possibility of undoing a possible miscarriage of justice,” he said.
“Capital punishment offers no justice to victims, but moderately encourages revenge.”
“From a legal perspective, it isn’t needed,” the pope added.
Firstly of every month, the network posts a brief video of the pope offering his specific prayer intention. For the month of September, the pope dedicated his prayer intention for the abolition of the death penalty.
In his video message, the pope said the death penalty was unnecessary because society “can effectively repress crime” without denying those that offend “the opportunity of redeeming themselves.”
The death penalty, he said, is “morally inadmissible” since it destroys life.
The death penalty, he said, is “morally inadmissible” since it destroys life, which is “a very powerful gift now we have received.”
“Allow us to not forget that, as much as the very last moment, an individual can convert and alter,” the pope said. “The commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ refers to each the innocent and the guilty.”
Concluding his prayer intention, Pope Francis called on “all people of goodwill” to rally together to finish capital punishment and prayed that “the death penalty, which attacks the dignity of the human person, could also be legally abolished in every country.”
In 2018, Pope Francis ordered a revision of the catechism’s paragraph on capital punishment to say that “the death penalty is inadmissible since it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” and to commit the church to working toward its abolition worldwide.
