Pope Francis has directed that the teaching of the universal Catholic Catechism be revised on capital punishment. Previously it indicated that capital punishment was not in principle morally wrong, yet unnecessary in the vast majority of cases.
Now the Catechism will teach that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”
One can predict the reactions: On the one hand, because of the Pope's previous confused statements (which he has left unclarified), religiously conservative Catholics might tend to dismiss this as more confusion. On the other hand, progressive Catholics (and others) might tend to see in this a harbinger of other longed-for changes, such as on divorce and sexual morality. Neither will be right.
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