Pope praises Catholic group that advocates for abolition of death penalty

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- Catholic Mobilizing Network, a group that advocates for the abolition of capital punishment in line with Catholic teaching, marked the World Day Against the Death Penalty Oct. 10 in an event at the Holy See's apostolic nunciature in Washington with a message from Pope Francis praising its work to help transform society.

At its Justice Reimagined Awards & Celebration, the group honored the organization Witness To Innocence, comprised of exonerated death-row survivors fighting to end the death penalty, as well as Dale Recinella, a long-time prison minister for those on Florida's death row.

In remarks to the gathering, Cardinal Christophe Pierre, apostolic nuncio to the United States, said, "On behalf of the Holy Father, I am grateful to the Catholic Mobilizing Network for responding to this call through your faithful field education, advocacy and prayer," and described the group's work as "in union with the pope and bishops under the leadership of gifted lay women and men, and in collaboration with people across the world ethnic and political spectrum of the church today and society."

He praised CMN for its efforts, which he said "is not seeking merely to score a political victory but is seeking to build just relationships, promote accountability and help the transformation of society."

Cardinal Pierre shared a message from Pope Francis praising the group's advocacy "for the repeal of the death penalty and promotion of restorative justice in the United States of America."

"He hopes that your efforts will continue to encourage all in the nation to recognize the inadequacy of capital punishment from moral as well as penal justice perspectives, and to support opportunities for reform and conversion for those convicted of crimes," Cardinal Pierre said. "He is confident that in this way, the innate and fundamental dignity of all human beings will be recognized and respected. To all gathered for this event, the Holy Father invokes an abundance of Almighty God's blessings."

Metropolitan Archbishop Borys A. Gudziak of the Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Philadelphia, who is also chair of the U.S. bishops' domestic policy committee, said, "To oppose the death penalty is not being soft on crime, it is rather being strong on the dignity of life."

Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, executive director of CMN, noted that in 2020, President Joe Biden became the first U.S. president to have campaigned on an openly anti-death penalty platform, and suggested that the group would make a push in the post-election lame-duck period for him to honor that pledge.

"We know that President Biden is leaving office, and his Catholic faith is very important to him," she said. "After the noise of the elections, we will need your help to amplify the clarion call to end the death penalty."

That call, she said, "should be amplified in such a way that President Biden hears it, and responds."

Biden, she suggested, should commute existing death sentences so "a future administration" could not carry out those executions.

Elsewhere in her remarks, Vaillancourt Murphy praised the evening's honorees, and said the group asks "for your help in building up storytellers and messengers who've been directly impacted by the criminal legal system, because it's their courageous voices that change hearts and minds."

In an Oct. 10 post on X, Pope Francis wrote, the death penalty "is always inadmissible, because it attacks the inviolability and dignity of the person."

"I appeal for its abolition in all countries of the world," the pontiff said. "We must not forget that a person can repent and change, even up until the very last moment of their life."