Pope Francis says the death penalty is 'inadmissible', changes the Catechism of the Catholic Church

By changing article 2,267, the pontiff commits the Church to the worldwide abolition of the death penalty. The previous version of article (from 1992) allowed capital punishment, albeit under strict conditions. China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are among the countries that execute the most.

Vatican City (AsiaNews) – Pope Francis has changed the Catechism of the Church, removing the death penalty as an acceptable form of punishment. In the previous version, the latter was allowed under strict conditions.

For the pontiff, “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and the dignity of the person”. For this reason, the Church works “with determination for its abolition worldwide”.

The Vatican Press Office released the new version of article 2,267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church today, authored by Card Luis Ladaria, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

The new version of article 2,267 says:

 “Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

Today, however, 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.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”,[1] and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.

The previous version, from 1992, at the time of Pope John Paul II, said:

“Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

“If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.

“Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity "are very rare, if not practically nonexistent” [Evangelium vitae, n. 56].

In recent years, Pope Francis has backed the call for a universal moratorium on capital punishment.

China, Saudi Arabia, and Iran are among the countries that use the death penalty most often.

[1] FRANCIS, Address of his Holiness Pope Francis to Participants in the Meeting Promoted by the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, Vatican, 11 October, 2017.

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• pope francis
• death penalty
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