Since 2018, the Catechism of the Catholic Church has stated that the Catholic Church opposes the death penalty. That year, Pope Francis revised the Catechism to read that the death penalty is "inadmissible" and that the Church works "for its abolition worldwide." Prior to this, the 1992 Catechism promulgated by Pope John Paul II had permitted the practice, reading that "the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty", though he stated that the practice must be limited only to extreme circumstances.

Historically, the Catholic Church has supported the death penalty. Figures including Pope Innocent I, Pope Innocent III, Thomas Aquinas, Francisco de Vitoria, Francisco Suárez, Pope Pius V, Robert Bellarmine, Alphonsus Liguori, Thomas More, John Henry Newman, Pope Pius X, and Pope Pius XII all wrote in support of the practice. Conversely, several theologians and Church Fathers prior to the 5th century including Justin Martyr, Tertullian, Origen, and Cyprian of Carthage have opposed it.

Under the Papal States, the church employed state executioners, notably including Giovanni Battista Bugatti. Under Vatican City, the death penalty was legal between 1929 to 1969, but was never applied.

In the modern era, many Catholic theologians and philosophers argue that the death penalty is intrinsically evil, though this view is disputed by others. Development of church doctrine led to increasing criticism of the practice during the 20th century. Modern Church figures such as Pope John Paul IIPapal encyclical, Evangelium Vitae, 25 March 1995 and the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops actively discouraged the imposition of the death penalty and advocated for its abolition. Others, including Avery Dulles, Charles J. Chaput, and Pope Benedict XVI have personally opposed the death penalty, while defending the rights of Catholics to support the practice.

Pope Francis has strengthened opposition to the practice, including with the 2024 declaration Dignitas Infinita. In September 2025, Leo XIV described supporters of the practice as not being truly "pro-life". Their views have been controversial and led to backlash from some Catholics, including Raymond Leo Burke, Gerhard Ludwig Müller, Athanasius Schneider, Scott Hahn, Edward Feser, and the Society of Saint Pius X.

Pre–16th century The early church was opposed to the death penalty, with a church order from Rome dating to around 200 AD threatening excommunication to any Christian magistrate that carried out a death sentence. However, attitudes towards the practice began to change in the fifth century.

Pope Innocent I (405) Pope Innocent I in his letter Ad Exsuperium, Episcopum Tolosanum (PL 20, 495) defended the death penalty:

Pope Innocent III (1209) Pope Innocent III, in the context of reconciliation of the Waldensians back to the church, said in a letter to Durand of Huesca:

Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274)

In the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas reaffirmed this position. The following is a summary of Summa Contra Gentiles, Book 3, Chapter 146 which was written by Aquinas prior to writing the Summa Theologica. In it, Thomas Aquinas supports the death penalty.

Reformation period to modern era (1520–1900)

(1520) One of Martin Luther's positions was given by the 1520 papal bull Exsurge Domine as "[t]hat heretics be burned is against the will of the Spirit"; as such, it was one of the statements specifically in the bull which the pope declared as "condemn[ed], disapprove[ed], and entirely reject[ed] as respectively heretical, or scandalous, or false, or offensive to pious ears, or seductive of simple minds, and in opposition to Catholic truth"., pp. 145–147.

Roman Catechism (1566) The Roman Catechism or "Catechism of the Council of Trent", in its section on the Fifth Commandment, teaches that civil authority, having power over life and death as "the legitimate avenger of crime", may commit "lawful slaying" as "an act of paramount obedience to this Commandment which prohibits murder" by giving "security to life by repressing outrage and violence". It also states:

1901–2013

Pope Pius X (1908) The 1908 Catechism of Pope Pius X teaches that the death penalty is lawful under the commandment thou shalt not kill:

Catholic Encyclopedia (1911) The 1911 edition of the Catholic Encyclopedia suggested that "the infliction of capital punishment is not contrary to the teaching of the Catholic Church, and the power of the State to visit upon culprits the penalty of death derives much authority from revelation and from the writings of theologians", but that the matter of "the advisability of exercising that power is, of course, an affair to be determined upon other and various considerations". The 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia further states that:

It also states:

Pope Pius XII (1952) In an address given on 14 September 1952, Pope Pius XII made clear that the Church did not regard the execution of criminals as a violation by the State of the universal right to life. He argued:

Pope Paul VI (1969) Pope Paul VI criticized the practice of capital punishment in Francoist Spain and the Soviet Union, and subsequently removed the statute on capital punishment from the "fundamental law" of Vatican City in 1969.

Various opinions (1978–2001) Some Catholic writers, such as Cardinal Joseph Bernadin of Chicago, argued against the use of the death penalty in modern times by drawing on a stance labelled the "consistent life ethic". Characteristic of this approach is an emphasis on the sanctity of human life, and the responsibility on both a personal and social level to protect and preserve life from "womb to tomb" (conception to natural death). This position draws on the conviction that God has "boundless love for every person, regardless of human merit or worthiness".Bernardin, J. Consistent Ethic of Life (Rowman & Littlefield, 1988), 66.

The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops also advocated for the abolition of the death penalty. During the papacy of Pope John Paul II, the conference stated that "our fundamental respect for every human life and for God, who created each person in his image, requires that we choose not to end a human life in response to violent crimes if non-lethal options are available."

In contrast, theologian and cardinal Avery Dulles argued in a 2001 article that historical Church teaching and the then-contemporary Catholic magisterium do not advocate for the abolition of the death penalty and do not deny the right of the state to impose the death penalty in certain extreme cases. Dulles suggests that the commandment "Thou shalt not murder" permits the death penalty by a civil authority as the administrator of justice in a human society in accordance with the natural law. Dulles argues that the Church teaches that punishments, including the death penalty, may be levied for four reasons: Rehabilitation – The sentence of death can and sometimes does move the condemned person to repentance and conversion. The death penalty may be a way of achieving the criminal's reconciliation with God. Defense against the criminal – Capital punishment is an effective way of preventing the wrongdoer from committing future crimes and protecting society from him. Deterrence – Executions may create a sense of horror that would prevent others from being tempted to commit similar crimes. Retribution – Guilt calls for punishment. The graver the offense, the more severe the punishment ought to be. In Holy Scripture death is regarded as the appropriate punishment for serious transgressions. Thomas Aquinas held that sin calls for the deprivation of some good, such as, in serious cases, the good of temporal or even eternal life. The wrongdoer is placed in a position to expiate his evil deeds and escape punishment in the next life.

Pope John Paul II

1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church The § 2267 of the first edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1992; first published in English in 1994) states:

Evangelium vitae, 1997 Catechism In his 1995 encyclical titled (The Gospel of Life), Pope John Paul II suggested that capital punishment should be avoided unless it is the only way to defend society from the offender in question, opining that punishment "ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent." The § 2267 of the second edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (1997) was thus changed to:

However, in a memorandum to Cardinal McCarrick made public in 2004, Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) suggested that the 1995 assessment of the contemporary situation advanced by John Paul II was not necessarily binding on the Catholic faithful in regard to capital punishment; he wrote:

In January 1999, Pope John Paul II, without changing Catholic teaching, appealed for a consensus to end the death penalty on the ground that it was "both cruel and unnecessary". He said that criminal offenders should be offered "an incentive and help to change his or her behaviour and be rehabilitated".

The 1997 update of the Catechism of the Catholic Church would remain in force until August 2018, when the Catechism was revised once again to take an even firmer stance against capital punishment and advocate for its complete abolition.

Pope Benedict XVI (2011) In his Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Africae Munus of November 2011, Benedict XVI called for the abolition of the death penalty:

Later that month, Benedict XVI again proposed abolishing the death penalty:

Contemporary period (2013–present)

Pope Francis (2013) Pope Francis stated that he is against the death penalty. In 2013, Pope Francis advocated that "capital sentences be commuted to a lesser punishment that allows for time and incentives for the reform of the offender". In 2015, Pope Francis addressed the International Commission against the Death Penalty, stating that: "Today the death penalty is inadmissible, no matter how serious the crime committed." Francis argued that the death penalty is no longer justifiable by society's need to defend itself, and the death penalty has lost all legitimacy due to the possibility of judicial error. He stated that capital punishment is an offence "against the inviolability of life and the dignity of the human person, which contradicts God's plan for man and society" and "does not render justice to the victims, but rather fosters vengeance".

Vatican support for UN campaign against death penalty (2015) The Vatican had also officially given support to a 2015 United Nations campaign against the death penalty. During a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting concerning the abolishment of capital punishment, Archbishop Silvano Tomasi declared that "The Holy See Delegation fully supports the efforts to abolish the use of the death penalty." The Archbishop also stated:

Modification to the Catechism (2018) On 1 August 2018, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith sent a letter to the world's Catholic bishops to warn them about the coming change of the teaching on the death penalty in the Catechism. On 2 August 2018, it was announced that the Catechism of the Catholic Church was revised, through a papal rescript, to state that the Church teaches "in the light of the Gospel" that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person". The 1 August letter to the bishops regarding the change stated that it was consistent with the previous teachings of the Catholic Church regarding the dignity of human life, and that it reflected how modern society had better prison systems with a goal of criminal rehabilitation that made the death penalty unnecessary for the protection of innocent people.