Pope’s September prayer intention: For abolition of the death penalty

By Vatican News staff reporter

“Each day, there is a growing ‘NO’ to the death penalty around the world,” says Pope Francis in the video released on Wednesday announcing his prayer intention for September. “For the Church, this is a sign of hope.”

In The Pope Video, produced by the Pope's Worldwide Prayer Network, the Holy Father maintains that the death penalty is not necessary “from a legal point of view.”

He argues that “society can effectively repress crime without definitively depriving offenders of the possibility of redeeming themselves.”

He adds that there must be “a window of hope” in every legal sentence. Capital punishment, he says, “offers no justice to victims, but rather encourages revenge. And it prevents any possibility of undoing a possible miscarriage of justice.”

Always possible to repent

Pope Francis goes on to say that the death penalty is “morally inadmissible” because it destroys life, and insists that “up to the very last moment, a person can convert and change.”

The Pope argues further that “in the light of the Gospel, the death penalty is unacceptable, because the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’ refers to both the innocent and the guilty.”

Pope Francis concludes his message with an appeal for all people of goodwill to mobilize for the abolition of the death penalty throughout the world.”