Pope Francis: Death penalty feeds vengeance, does not serve justice

Death penalty only serves to feed vengeance instead of restoring justice, said Pope Francis at a conference Tuesday, June 21.

The pope addressed the conference through a video message during the start of the three-day council of the Sixth World Congress Against the Death Penalty held in Oslo, Norway which advocates to repeal the capital punishment worldwide.

Francis referred to the punishment as "an offence to the inviolability of life and to the dignity of the human person." He clarified that God's commandment instructing not to kill is not selective but "has absolute value and applies both to the innocent and to the guilty."

"It must not be forgotten that the inviolable and God-given right to life also belongs to the criminal," said the pope, according to Catholic News Service.

It is for this same sentiment that the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE) updated their stance in 2015 after standing in full support of the death penalty since the 1970s. Representing 45,000 churches from nearly 40 denominations, NAE announced how an increasing number of the evangelicals are calling out against the death penalty as they cite the "sacredness of life" and "the potential for repentance and reformation." NAE accommodated for the divided opinion on the issue.

According to Christianity Today, NAE's updated resolution came about months after the National Latino Evangelical Coalition (NaLEC) became the first evangelical association to back the repeal of the death penalty.

However, NaLEC offered a different perspective for its opposition indicating how the capital punishment can be influenced by racial discrimination as the Latinos have experienced.

"The death penalty is plagued by racial and economic disparities and risks executing an innocent person," stated the NaLEC leadership, as reported by Christianity Today. "Human beings are fallible and there is no room for fallibility in matters of life and death."

The Catholic Church does allow for death penalty but stresses "if this is the only possibly way," upholding the hope that a convict can still reform. Thus, Francis called on for better prison conditions and for means of promoting rehabilitation so that those who are serving their sentences would still live their lives with dignity.

"There is no fitting punishment without hope!" CNS quoted Francis as saying. "Punishment for its own sake, without room for hope, is a form of torture, not of punishment."