Pope Francis Calls For Global Abolition Of The Death Penalty

Pope Francis has called on Catholic leaders to seek a ban on the death penalty exclaiming that Thou shall not kill applies to the guilty as well as the innocent. Pope Francis who spoke to thousands at St. Peter's Square, in the Vatican, asked politicians around the world to make a courageous and exemplary gesture during the Church's current Holy Year.

Francis made the comments to throw his weight behind an international conference against the death penalty starting on Monday in Rome and organised by the Sant'Egidio Community, a worldwide Catholic peace and justice group. He said: “I appeal to the consciences of those who govern to reach an international consensus to abolish the death penalty The commandment You shall not kill, has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty.

The pope added that there was now a growing opposition to the death penalty even for the legitimate defence of society because modern means existed to efficiently repress crime without definitively denying the person who committed it the possibility of rehabilitating themselves. Francis, who has visited a number of jails since his election as pope also called for better prison conditions saying “All Christians and men of good will are called on to work not only for the abolition of the death penalty, but also to improve prison conditions so that they respect the human dignity of people who have been deprived of their freedom”.

In the past, the pope also denounced life imprisonment, calling it a hidden death penalty and saying that more should be done to try to rehabilitate even the most hardened of criminals. The 1.2 billion-member Catholic Church allowed the death penalty in extreme cases for centuries, but the position began to change under the late Pope John Paul, who died in 2005.