(The Philippine Star) | Updated June 23, 2016 - 12:00am
VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis is amplifying his opposition to capital punishment, saying it’s an offense to life, contradicts God’s plan and serves no purpose for punishment.
In a video message to an anti-death penalty congress in Norway, Francis declared the commandment “Thou shalt not kill†has absolute value and applies both to the innocent and to the guilty.
Francis has gone beyond his predecessors and traditional Catholic teaching in saying there is simply no justification for the death penalty today. He said Tuesday that rather than rendering justice, it fosters vengeance.
Church teaching allows for recourse to capital punishment when it is the only way to defend lives “effectively†against an aggressor.
“It must not be forgotten that the inviolable and God-given right to life also belongs to the criminal,†he said.
Francis sent the video message to the delegates of the sixth World Congress against capital punishment, currently being held in Oslo, Norway.
The pontiff did not mention any particular country in his message.
He stressed the practice of capital punishment brings no justice to victims.
“Indeed, nowadays, the death penalty is unacceptable, however grave the crime of the convicted person,†Francis said in the message.
The World Congress in Oslo discussed the need to sustain the move in abolishing the death penalty in some countries.
As of today, 140 nations have abolished the death penalty, as compared to only 16 countries in 1977.
The Republic of the Congo, Fiji, Madagascar, Mongolia and Suriname become the latest countries to formally abolish capital punishment.
The death penalty is prevalent in Asia and the Middle East, with Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Iran responsible for 89 percent of recorded executions in 2015. This does not include China, where official statistics on its use are considered a state secret.
China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the US are the five biggest executioners in the world.
Other countries have passed counterterrorism laws that expanded the list of crimes punishable by death.
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