In November of 2013, the Pope encouraged the faithful to use the “spiritual medicine” in order “to make concrete the fruits of the Year of Faith” which was coming to an end.
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The pontiff said he hoped the event would give renewed impetus to the commitment to abolish capital punishment, saying that everyone deserves the chance for redemption. “The commandment, ‘Thou shalt not kill, ‘ has absolute value, and concerns both the innocent and the guilty”, he told thousands in St. Peter’s Square.
“I appeal to the conscience of those who govern so that global consensus is reached for the abolishment of the death penalty”, the pope said to tourists and pilgrims in Rome.
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.
Russian Federation suspended the death penalty indefinitely in 1999, although it was retained in the Constitution.
On Wednesday, when he was in Ciudad Juarez, Francis visited Cereso 3 state prison, labeled by some as Mexico’s “Crime University”.
Meanwhile, airline bookings to parts of Latin America and the Caribbean have slipped globally since a U.S. public health agency warned pregnant women against travel to areas where the Zika virus is spreading, travel data analysis company ForwardKeys said Friday.
Francis has made mercy the dominant theme of the Church’s ongoing Jubilee year and he urged governments which still authorise judicial killings to follow his lead.
“It’s necessary to cure nations from the fascination on resentment and revenge, as it’s true that, even when they executions decrease, in some areas of the world extrajudicial killings and lynching become more frequent”, they said.
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The Catholic Church used to allow the death penalty for extreme cases but that position began to change under Pope John Paul II, who was the first to say capital punishment could never be justified.
