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The Pope has declared that the death penalty is no longer allowed under Catholic teachings “because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” the Vatican announced today.
This change has been added to the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the compendium of Catholic beliefs.
This is not the first time the Pope has called for a worldwide end to Capital Punishment - he did it in 2015 in his address to Congress.
This new Catholic teaching also calls for prison reform.
“There is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes.
“In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.”
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