Log In
updated 10:20 AM UTC, Dec 13, 2023

Catholic Church: Death Penalty Inadmissible

Unic Press UK: There’s a major change in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) as the Church has decided that capital punishment is inadmissible.

According to Vatican News, the decision was announced by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in a ‘Letter to the Bishops’ dated 1 August and signed by the Prefect, Cardinal Luis Francisco Ladaria.

The new text on death penalty reads:

2267. 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”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide,” the Vatican News reports.

Tagged under

Leave a Reply