Death penalty must be resisted everywhere, Pope insists

The death penalty is a rejection of the Gospel and human dignity, Pope Francis has said, and must be rejected by all countries.

Meeting with delegates from the International Commission against the Death Penalty, the Pope said capital punishment persists as a lingering value of times when “the instruments available to us for the protection of society were lacking and the current level of development of human rights had not yet been achieved”.

It is a legacy of a time when legal values were held higher than Christian ones and justice prevailed over mercy, he added, explaining that the Church today rejects the death penalty in all cases because it “counters the inviolability and the dignity of the person” and denies guilty people the “hope of redemption and reconciliation with the community”.

Maintaining that the death penalty is always a rejection of the Gospel and human dignity, the Pontiff said the Church has a duty to oppose it.  “The Church cannot remain in a neutral position in the face of the current demands for the reaffirmation of personal dignity,” he said.

Earlier this year the Pope ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, calling the death penalty “inadmissible” and urging its elimination. Previously the Catechism taught that states could use the death penalty in extremely rare cases of “absolute necessity”.