The Community of Sant’Egidio welcomes with gratitude and satisfaction the Pope Francis’ ruling which revises the Catechism of Catholic Church on the matter of the death penalty.
The new wording of the paragraph 2267 states that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”.
Starting from the Gospel, the Pope’s resolution is a further push to the Church and to the Catholics to respect the sacredness of human life and to commit to the abolition of this inhuman practice, in every Continent and at every level.
The Community, which has been promoting for years campaigns against the death penalty all over the world, feels even more involved in this battle of civilization and humanity. We are convinced that one day the death penalty will disappear from legal systems, like in Europe –the only Continent which has so far banned the capital punishment- and how it is already occurring in many other countries, mostly in Africa.
With this ruling by Pope Francis every Catholic is today urged to be a builder of a world free from death penalty.
