Pope Declares Death Penalty Unacceptable in All Cases

New York Times

By Elisabetta Povoledo and Laurie Goodstein

Aug. 2, 2018

ROME — Pope Francis has declared that the death penalty is wrong in all cases, a definitive change in church teaching that is likely to challenge faithful Catholic politicians, judges and officials in the United States and other countries who have argued that their church was not entirely opposed to capital punishment.

Francis added the change to the Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church, the book of doctrine that is taught to Catholic children worldwide and studied by adults in a church with 1.2 billion members.

Francis said executions were unacceptable in all cases because they are “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” the Vatican announced on Thursday.

The church also says it will work “with determination” for the abolition of capital punishment worldwide.

Read more at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/02/world/europe/pope-death-penalty.html.

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