Pope Leo XIV Declares Death Penalty 'Inadmissible' on World Day Against the Death Penalty
Pope Leo XIV on Saturday reaffirmed the Catholic Church's rejection of capital punishment, declaring the death penalty "inadmissible" as an attack on human dignity, in a message marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty.
In a post on his official X account @Pontifex, the American-born pontiff quoted the revised Catholic teaching ushered in by his predecessor Pope Francis: "The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: 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 closed with the hashtag #NoDeathPenalty.
The statement landed as the death penalty debate flares in his native United States. The Pentagon announced this week that the firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan — convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the 2009 Fort Hood shooting — will be livestreamed, with the execution set for December 3 at Fort Hood, Texas. Hours before the pope's post, his top deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, explicitly called the planned public execution "unacceptable."
The pope did not refer specifically to the planned execution in his message; Saturday is the World Day Against the Death Penalty, and it is customary for the pontiff's official accounts to mark such commemorations. But the timing underscored the Church's longstanding teaching: that even the gravest crimes do not extinguish the God-given dignity of the person, and that justice can be served without taking a life.
The message also comes as the Vatican hosts a week-long assembly of some 150 bishops from more than 115 countries on Catholic family life, running through October 14 — the largest gathering of Church leaders of Leo's pontificate so far.
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: Jebulon 摄，CC0（Wikimedia Commons）
