Pope Francis calls for worldwide ban on death penalty

In a heartfelt plea to the Catholics worldwide, Pope Francis called for the death penalty to be abolished across the world, saying the commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill’, should be applied to both the innocent and guilty.

Using some of his strongest words ever against capital punishment, the Pontiff called on Catholic politicians worldwide to make “a courageous and exemplary gesture” by seeking a moratorium on executions during the Church’s current Holy Year, which ends in November.

“I appeal to the consciences of those who govern to reach an international consensus to abolish the death penalty,” the 79-year-old Pope said, addressing tens of thousands of people in St. Peter's Square on Sunday.

“The commandment ‘You shall not kill,’ has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty ... Even the criminal keeps the inviolable right to life,” he told the crowd.

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.

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.”

“A sign of hope is the development, in public opinion, of a growing opposition to the death penalty. Indeed, modern societies have the ability to deal with crime without removing permanently the one who has committed it a chance to redeem himself,” said the Pope.

Francis made the comments to throw his weight behind an international conference against the death penalty starting Monday in Rome and organized by the Sant'Egidio Community, a worldwide Catholic peace and justice group.

Currently, at least 30 countries, including the US, China and India use the death penalty. The annual report by Amnesty International calls for an end to capital punishment, saying it “breaches two essential human rights: the right to life and the right to live free from torture.”

As of July 2015, 101 countries had abolished the capital punishment for all crimes, according to the human rights group. However, Saudi Arabia executed more people in 2015 than it did in 2014. At the beginning of 2016, the country beheaded 47 people, including a prominent cleric.

Francis, who has visited a number of jails since his election as pope nearly three years ago - the latest in Mexico last week - also called for better prison conditions.

“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,” he said.

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.