Pope Leo speaks out against the death penalty with major statement on where he stands
Pope Leo has revealed his thoughts on whether the death penalty should be legal after posting his public reflections online.
In recent weeks, the controversy surrounding the legal death process in US prisons has reached boiling point.
Namely, it came after the failed execution of Christa Pike on September 30, which saw her survive two doses of the lethal injection.
Her current status, per her attorneys, Stephen Ferrell and Luke Ihnen of Federal Defender Services of Eastern Tennessee, and Randy Spivey and Kelly Gleason of the Tennessee Office of the Post Conviction Defender, she has been discharged from hospital following the shock event.
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She has since been confirmed to be at Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center after suffering from what they say are severe injuries to the injection site.
In a statement on X, Pope Leo XIV, spoke out against the use of the death penalty on October 10 – which happens to be the 24th World Day Against the Death Penalty, which is observed every year.
The Pope wrote of his opposition to executions: “The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”
He explained: “The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption. #NoDeathPenalty”.
The World Day Against the Death Penalty is when the global abolitionist movement ‘encourages and consolidates the political and general awareness of the worldwide movement against the death penalty,’ and it looks like the Pope has made his views on the matter clear.
In the US, the death penalty has been used in its justice system since 1608, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which names Captain George Kendall as ‘the first recorded execution in the new colonies’.
From there, the laws began to come to fruition, and soon, they were opposed by those who disagreed with the use of capital punishments.
However, it’s not the pope’s first time addressing his views on the death penalty as a discussion on Reddit showed the moment he said shows how a person isn’t ‘pro-life’.
Speaking with a reporter, he said: "Someone who says 'I'm against abortion' but says 'I'm in favor of the death penalty' is not really pro-life.”
He added another example to his conclusion when he added: “Someone who says that 'I'm against abortion but I'm in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States,' I don't know if that's pro-life."
Instead, he asked that people be kinder to one another and to ‘find the way forward’ on those type of ‘ethical issues’.
Now, that doesn’t mean everyone was happy with the pope’s X post, because some were downright upset.
One person wrote: “It's almost like you've never read the Bible at all.”
Another said: “Nobody asked for your opinion.”
However, he also had many supporters on his side, with a user commenting: “The death penalty becomes even more reprehensible when authorities seek to livestream them as public entertainment.”
Britt Jones