Pope Francis used his landmark address to the US Congress on Thursday to reiterate his belief that the death penalty should be abolished, directly tying the issue to his advocacy for the poor and underrepresented.
“I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes,” Francis said, according to The Washington post.
Francis drew loud applause for saying the Golden Rule urging people to treat others as they would want to be treated gives people “responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of development.” The pope followed that applause by saying he feels this extends to those who have been sentenced for crimes, and when he called for the abolition of the death penalty, a smaller round of cheers again broke out.
His remarks arrived at a time when capital punishment on the United States is receiving renewed scrutiny, as botched executions over the last year and a high-profile Supreme Court ruling on lethal injection have focused more attention on how the country executes inmates.
The death penalty is on the decline in the United States, with far fewer executions and death sentences last year than previous years. Still, the United States is still among the world’s leaders in capital punishment, ranking among the five countries that carry out the most executions worldwide, according to Amnesty International.
A majority of Americans support the death penalty, though that majority has been steadily declining since the mid-1990s. In the United States, a majority of Catholics also favor the death penalty, though by slightly smaller numbers than the broader American public, a Pew Research Center poll found in March. While 56 percent of Americans support the death penalty, 53 percent of Catholics support it, both figures that have fallen in recent years.