Catholic Church and capital punishment
Catholic social teaching on the death penalty condemns the practice in any circumstance. In 2018, the Catechism of the Catholic Church was revised to read that "in the light of the Gospel" the death penalty is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" and that the Catholic Church "works with determination for its abolition worldwide." The predominant view of present Catholic theologians and philosophers is that the death penalty is intrinsically evil, although others have given other interpretations. Development of church doctrine led to increasing criticism of the practice during the 20th century.
Historic opposition dates back to Early Christianity through figures such as Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian of Carthage.
Modern Church figures such as Pope John Paul II and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops actively discouraged the imposition of the death penalty and advocated for its abolition. Since the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church became staunchly opposed to the death penalty. John Paul II appealed for a consensus to end the death penalty on the ground that it is "both cruel and unnecessary".
In the 21st century, Pope Francis and Pope Leo XIV strengthened opposition to the practice. The 2024 declaration Dignitas Infinita cites Vatican II’s Gaudium et Spes list of crimes against human dignity to describe the death penalty, comparing it to "genocide, abortion, euthanasia, and willful suicide" while stating that it "violates the inalienable dignity of every person, regardless of the circumstances". In September 2025, Leo XIV described supporters of the practice as not being truly "pro-life".
Pre–16th century
The early church was opposed to the death penalty, with a church order from Rome dating to around 200 AD threatening excommunication to any Christian magistrate that carried out a death sentence. However, attitudes towards the practice began to change in the fifth century.Pope Innocent I (405)
Pope Innocent I in his letter Ad Exsuperium, Episcopum Tolosanum defended the death penalty:Pope Innocent III (1209)
Pope Innocent III, in the context of reconciliation of the Waldensians back to the church, said in a letter to Durand of Huesca:Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)
In the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas reaffirmed this position. The following is a summary of Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 3, Chapter 146 which was written by Aquinas prior to writing the Summa Theologica. In it, Thomas Aquinas supports the death penalty.Reformation period to modern era (1520–1900)
(1520)
One of Martin Luther's positions was given by the 1520 papal bull Exsurge Domine as "hat heretics be burned is against the will of the Spirit"; as such, it was one of the statements specifically in the bull which the pope declared as "condemn, disapprove, and entirely reject as respectively heretical, or scandalous, or false, or offensive to pious ears, or seductive of simple minds, and in opposition to Catholic truth".Roman Catechism (1566)
The Roman Catechism or "Catechism of the Council of Trent", in its section on the Fifth Commandment, teaches that civil authority, having power over life and death as "the legitimate avenger of crime", may commit "lawful slaying" as "an act of paramount obedience to this Commandment which prohibits murder" by giving "security to life by repressing outrage and violence". It also states:Modern era (1900–2013)
Pope Pius X (1908)
The 1908 Catechism of Pope Pius X teaches that the death penalty is lawful under the commandment thou shalt not kill:''Catholic Encyclopedia'' (1911)
The 1911 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia suggested that "the infliction of capital punishment is not contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church, and the power of the State to visit upon culprits the penalty of death derives much authority from revelation and from the writings of theologians", but that the matter of "the advisability of exercising that power is, of course, an affair to be determined upon other and various considerations". The 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia further states that:It also states:
Pope Pius XII (1952)
In an address given on 14 September 1952, Pope Pius XII made clear that the Church did not regard the execution of criminals as a violation by the State of the universal right to life. He argued:Pope Paul VI (1969)
Pope Paul VI criticized the practice of capital punishment in Francoist Spain and the Soviet Union, and subsequently removed the statute on capital punishment from the "fundamental law" of Vatican City in 1969.Various opinions (1978–2001)
Some Catholic writers, such as Cardinal Joseph Bernadin of Chicago, argued against the use of the death penalty in modern times by drawing on a stance labelled the "consistent life ethic". Characteristic of this approach is an emphasis on the sanctity of human life, and the responsibility on both a personal and social level to protect and preserve life from "womb to tomb". This position draws on the conviction that God has "boundless love for every person, regardless of human merit or worthiness".The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also advocated for the abolition of the death penalty. During the papacy of Pope John Paul II, the conference stated that "our fundamental respect for every human life and for God, who created each person in his image, requires that we choose not to end a human life in response to violent crimes if non-lethal options are available."
In contrast, theologian and cardinal Avery Dulles argued in a 2001 article that historical Church teaching and the then-contemporary Catholic magisterium do not advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and do not deny the right of the state to impose the death penalty in certain extreme cases. Dulles suggests that the commandment "Thou shalt not murder" permits the death penalty by a civil authority as the administrator of justice in a human society in accordance with the natural law. Dulles argues that the Church teaches that punishments, including the death penalty, may be levied for four reasons:
- Rehabilitation – The sentence of death can and sometimes does move the condemned person to repentance and conversion. The death penalty may be a way of achieving the criminal's reconciliation with God.
- Defense against the criminal – Capital punishment is an effective way of preventing the wrongdoer from committing future crimes and protecting society from him.
- Deterrence – Executions may create a sense of horror that would prevent others from being tempted to commit similar crimes.
- Retribution – Guilt calls for punishment. The graver the offense, the more severe the punishment ought to be. In Holy Scripture death is regarded as the appropriate punishment for serious transgressions. Thomas Aquinas held that sin calls for the deprivation of some good, such as, in serious cases, the good of temporal or even eternal life. The wrongdoer is placed in a position to expiate his evil deeds and escape punishment in the next life.
Pope John Paul II
1992 ''Catechism of the Catholic Church''
The § 2267 of the first edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church states:''Evangelium vitae'', 1997 ''Catechism''
In his 1995 encyclical titled Evangelium vitae, Pope John Paul II suggested that capital punishment should be avoided unless it is the only way to defend society from the offender in question, opining that punishment "ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent." The § 2267 of the second edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church was thus changed to:However, in a memorandum to Cardinal McCarrick made public in 2004, Cardinal Ratzinger suggested that the 1995 assessment of the contemporary situation advanced by John Paul II was not necessarily binding on the Catholic faithful in regard to capital punishment; he wrote:
In January 1999, Pope John Paul II, without changing Catholic teaching, appealed for a consensus to end the death penalty on the ground that it was "both cruel and unnecessary". He said that criminal offenders should be offered "an incentive and help to change his or her behaviour and be rehabilitated".
The 1997 update of the Catechism of the Catholic Church would remain in force until August 2018, when the Catechism was revised once again to take an even firmer stance against capital punishment and advocate for its complete abolition.
Pope Benedict XVI (2011)
In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Africae Munus of November 2011, Benedict XVI called for the abolition of the death penalty:Later that month, Benedict XVI again proposed abolishing the death penalty:
Contemporary period (2013–present)
Pope Francis (2013)
Pope Francis has stated that he is against the death penalty. In 2013, Pope Francis advocated that "capital sentences be commuted to a lesser punishment that allows for time and incentives for the reform of the offender". In 2015, Pope Francis addressed the International Commission against the Death Penalty, stating that: "Today the death penalty is inadmissible, no matter how serious the crime committed." Francis argued that the death penalty is no longer justifiable by society's need to defend itself, and the death penalty has lost all legitimacy due to the possibility of judicial error. He stated that capital punishment is an offence "against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts God's plan for man and society" and "does not render justice to the victims, but rather fosters vengeance".Vatican support for UN campaign against death penalty (2015)
The Vatican had also officially given support to a 2015 United Nations campaign against the death penalty. During a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting concerning the abolishment of capital punishment, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi declared that "The Holy See Delegation fully supports the efforts to abolish the use of the death penalty." The Archbishop also stated:Modification to the ''Catechism'' (2018)
On 1 August 2018, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent a letter to the world's Catholic bishops to warn them about the coming change of the teaching on the death penalty in the Catechism. On 2 August 2018, it was announced that the Catechism of the Catholic Church was revised, through a papal rescript, to state that 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". The 1 August letter to the bishops regarding the change stated that it was consistent with the previous teachings of the Catholic Church regarding the dignity of human life, and that it reflected how modern society had better prison systems with a goal of criminal rehabilitation that made the death penalty unnecessary for the protection of innocent people.The new text reads:
''Fratelli tutti'' (2020)
In his 2020 encyclical Fratelli tutti, Pope Francis repeats that the death penalty is "inadmissible" and that "there can be no stepping back from this position". He adds that the Catholic Church is committed for the worldwide abolition of death penalty, and explains: "The firm rejection of the death penalty shows to what extent it is possible to recognize the inalienable dignity of every human being and to accept that he or she has a place in this universe."Subsequent remarks
On 9 January 2022, Pope Francis stated in his annual speech to Vatican ambassadors: "The death penalty cannot be employed for a purported state justice, since it does not constitute a deterrent nor render justice to victims, but only fuels the thirst for vengeance".The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith's document Dignitas Infinita, released on 8 April 2024, states that death penalty "violates the inalienable dignity of every person, regardless of the circumstances", and that "the firm rejection of the death penalty shows to what extent it is possible to recognize the inalienable dignity of every human being. If I do not deny that dignity to the worst of criminals, I will not deny it to anyone".
Objections to the current stance
Two weeks after the Catechism was changed, 45 Catholic scholars and clergy signed an appeal to the cardinals of the Catholic Church, calling on them to advise Pope Francis to retract the 2018 revision made to the Catechism, on the grounds that its appearance of contradicting scripture and traditional teaching is causing scandal.Thomas Petri, dean of the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception, considers that the 2018 change of the Catechism and Fratelli tutti which both declare the death penalty "inadmissible" means that the death penalty is, in fact, in itself admissible since the pope did not qualify death penalty as "intrinsically evil". He considers the change of stance is "a new understanding of punishment". He explains that historically the death penalty from a Catholic point of view is seen first as a mean of retribution, and secondly of rehabilitation of the criminal and of protection of society, but that John Paul II in Evangelium vitae declares that the protection of society was the first objective of death penalty.