Catholic Church changes teaching on death penalty, Pope calls for worldwide abolition

RT
Thu, 02 Aug 2018 11:20 UTC

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The Roman Catholic Church said that the death penalty is always inadmissible as it "attacks" human dignity, calling for its abolition worldwide. The statement marks a change in Catholic Church teaching.

For a long time "the death penalty by the legitimate authority after a regular trial was considered an adequate response" to some serious crimes, the statement from the Pope said, as cited by Vatican Radio.

The pontiff argues that a person's dignity "is not lost even after committing serious crimes." Today, more "effective detention systems" are being developed, which guarantee proper defense of citizens, and at the same time allow offenders to redeem themselves.

"The death penalty is inadmissible" because it attacks the "dignity of a person", he concludes.

Previously a Catechism of the Catholic Church had allowed the capital punishment in rare cases.

According to Amnesty International, almost 1000 executions were recorded in 2017. The majority of them took place in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan. All in all, at least 23 countries were known to have carried out executions last year, the group says, noting that Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) resumed executions. Amnesty also recorded more than 2,500 death sentences across 53 countries in 2017.

Comment: Reuters adds:

Pope Francis on Sunday called for the worldwide abolition of the death penalty, saying the commandment "You shall not kill" was absolute and equally valid for the guilty as for the innocent.
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"All Christians and men of good will are called on to work not only for the abolition of the death penalty, but also to improve prison conditions so that they respect the human dignity of people who have been deprived of their freedom," he said.

In the past, the pope also denounced life imprisonment, calling it "a hidden death penalty" and saying that more should be done to try to rehabilitate even the most hardened of criminals.