Pope Francis called on Sunday for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide. In a speech to those gathered in Saint Peter’s Square at the Vatican he said that the mandate to oppose the death penalty comes from the Ten Commandments. “The commandment ‘You shall not kill’ has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty,” he said. Some may wonder, then, whether consistent Christianity ought to, as the Pope says, mandate moral and political objection to capital punishment in all circumstances.
Let me first say where I agree with the Pope. He is absolutely right about the value of human life. I am glad that he has spoken up against a culture of death that sees life as, in his words, “disposable.” He is also right about the church’s responsibility to prisoners, to remember those who are jailed, to minister to them, and to work against policies that violate human dignity or harden criminals in their criminality.
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