Pope Leo XIV on Saturday declared capital punishment ”inadmissible” as he marked the World Day Against the Death Penalty and his native United States announced plans to livestream an execution by firing squad.
In a post on X, the American pope quoted the revised Catholic teaching on capital punishment ushered in by Pope Francis that the death penalty attacks the inherent dignity of a human being.
“The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment,” read the post under Leo’s official handle, @Pontifex. “Effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption.”
The post ended with the hashtag #NoDeathPenalty.
The U.S. Defense Department announced Thursday that the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base, will be livestreamed. Hasan, scheduled to be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3, was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others.
Leo didn’t refer specifically to the planned execution, or the botched lethal injection in Tennessee earlier that has revived debate over the death penalty in the United States. Saturday is World Day Against the Death Penalty, and it is common for the pope’s official social media accounts to post messages marking such commemorations.
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But Leo’s post came just hours after his top deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said explicitly that the planned U.S. public execution was “unacceptable.”
Pope Francis declared capital punishment ‘inadmissible’
Pope Francis in 2018 amended official Catholic teaching to declare capital punishment “inadmissible” in all circumstances.
Previously, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official compendium of church teaching, said the church didn’t exclude recourse to capital punishment “if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”
Past popes had upheld that position, though St. John Paul II began urging an end to the practice and stressed that guilty people were just as deserving of dignity as innocent ones.
Like Francis before him, Leo has made visiting prisons a key part of his papal travel in a bid to give a message of hope to inmates and underscore their inherent dignity, that God loves them and that there is always a chance for redemption.
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“If any of you fear being abandoned by everyone, know that God will never abandon you, and that the church will stand by your side,” Leo told inmates at the notorious Bata prison in Equatorial Guinea during his visit in April. Leo is to visit a prison in Buenos Aires during his upcoming tour through Latin America.
Speaking specifically about the United States, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said the planned livestreamed execution was “truly incomprehensible” and “unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.”
“The Church’s position is one of total opposition to the death penalty; it is incompatible with human dignity and serves as no deterrent…,” Parolin said in comments carried by Vatican News. “It is truly incomprehensible that anyone would want to use this system today — I don’t know for what purpose. It is certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle; even if the person is guilty, of course, there are other methods.”
The head of the U.S. bishops conference, Archbishop Paul Coakley, expressed “shock” and “great sorrow” at the Pentagon’s plans.
“In no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” he said in a statement Friday. “The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.”
the head pope. the one with dirty knees should be more concerned about the Ukraine war and how its a front to wash money
Carney hasn’t delivered one promise in 18 months. Lol
Pope Francis that the death penalty attacks the inherent dignity of a human being. YEAH !!! WHAT DOES THE CRIMINALS ATTACK DO TO THE DIGNITY OF THE PERSON NOW DEAD ???
We have a new one.
Carney Derangement Syndrome (CDS)
Anonymous @ 3:08pm and 3:13pm. The problem about too many identifying as anonymous is you have a mixed support of for and against topics, and for and against people; like Trump. The above anonymous is clearly of the idiotic and foolish category of anonymous.
200,000 abortions are performed every single day on earth.
That again…. 200,000 babies are killed every day.
an act CELEBRATED around the world by the abortion death cult
Yet the hearts bleed for this mass murderer.
Not a deterrent at all.
Just trump wanting to sell popcorn
We are also called Elbows Up Canadians and we blame everything on Trump.
Never heard of CDS, must be something new.
We should defund the police. Life would be so much better.
9 dead in Pennsylvania shooting.
Ha ha! The death penalty does nothing, it’s just revenge. Not that I really care.
Why should we be concerned about a convicted murders feelings? I recall when Trudeau moved Bernardo to medium security than tried to lie about it.
Public executions are there to deter others from doing the same. Simple as that. For those that don’t like it (including the Pope) too bad.
I’d pay big bucks to see a Libby executed
Anyone crying about this being livestreamed can cry to the victims families. Nobody cares what you think.
Trump and his admin are cruel beyond words. public execution, ICE murdering people in broad daylight, bombing boats in international waters, war in Iran killing civilians. These are crimes against humanity and anyone condoning this activity should be held accountable. Trump’s legacy has become known for corruption, chaos and cruelt plus, plus plus.
Trump and his admin are absolute barbarians! Televising an execution is beyond words and anyone watching such an event has a mental issue and cruelty issue just like Trump and his MAGA group. Civilized human beings do not relish witnessing a horrific event like an execution. Shame on anyone that would promote this type of behaviour.
The Popes opinion is just his own. I like the idea of these events being televised, so all dignity is stripped away from the convicted murderer and no mercy is shown.
The USA is lowering its standards to those of a third world country that has public hangings, stoning and beheadings and yet there seems to be no deterrent as public executions are plentiful in those countries.
Liberals, who would rather release murderers into the public because of their supposed “generational trauma” that only affects people of colour, have some complaints they would like to voice.
Says a figurehead for a Church that executed, by modern estimates, tens of thousands…
It would not surprise me one bit if the USA and some how Trump and friends start charging Pay per View to watch executions live. It seems like something Trump would try to make money off being the grifter he is.
More death in the USA. 5 killed in a shooting in Erie Pennsylvania. That nation kills it own every damned day!
Death penalty is good, also cut arms off at the shoulders of thieves
This Roman pope is a heretic, promoting false and dangerous doctrines that hurt innocent people.
“the death penalty attacks the inherent dignity of a human being” That is the whole point. Society has ruled that this human being should not have any dignity. – The solution requested would mean locking the person in a small room, with just enough food and water to keep them alive until they die. Is that more dignified? Most would call that the worst undignified way to die.
Capital punishment was once considered a humane result, and it was public. That way people who might be tempted, would see the result and be dissuaded from their crime.
Capital punishment is maybe the only way to get crime under control and a public show of what happens when you kill other people will make that sink in. People on death row did not end up there by accident. They didn’t get there because they cared for you or I.
As for the pope chiming in, we don’t need your lying, thieving input.
This Pope and the whole papacy is the construct of Jews.
Turning human death into entertainment like the US is doing is just very wrong. If it happens it will have very negative social implications.
Will this rotten tree no longer poison mankind with its support of wholesale capital punishment called War?
Only at Armageddon will these hypocrites stop learning War.
No real truth to his statement. Just a political hack.