How the Vatican's declaration will and won't change laws across the world

"I eagerly await the new, forceful, and reversed positions on the death penalty from all the Catholic politicians who regularly explain their anti-abortion stance as 'the teaching of my church.'"

"Will Catholic [Gov. Pete Ricketts], who spends a lot of time talking about his 'pro-life values,' heed the words of Pope Francis by cancelling the experimental execution scheduled for August 14 in Nebraska?" asks Sister Helen Prejean

Another "dogma lives loudly" Know Nothing moment.

Pope Francis’ decree last week that the death penalty is “inadmissible” in all cases could pose a dilemma for Roman Catholic politicians and judges in the United States.

Parliament on Monday passed a stringent legislation prescribing death penalty to those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12 years and making the law against such sexual offences harsher.

Megachurch Pastor Robert Jeffress, a Fox News contributor, got a Bible lesson from the Internet over the weekend after he lashed out at Pope Francis for opposing the death penalty. In a declaration last week, the Vatican said that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” On Sunday, Jeffress complained about the Catholic Church’s stance. “Pope Francis is dead wrong about capital punishment,” he …

Students have been demanding changes to the country’s transport laws after two teenagers were killed by a privately operated bus last week

In the Torah, God outlines the circumstances in which people can be executed, and Jesus later affirms Jewish law. Pope Francis appears not to agree with these ultimate authorities on the death penalty.

Father Edward Beck nailed Nebraska Republican Gov. Pete Ricketts for helping fund a renewal of the death penalty in the state for political reasons. In an interview with CNN, Beck addressed the recent decision by Pope Francis to outlaw the death penalty entirely. The previous doctrine was fine with the death penalty in extreme circumstances when society couldn’t protect people from criminals. Today, prisons can protect the people. Beck called this a “loophole” in Catholic …

The pope’s rewriting of the Catechism on the death penalty undermines the Church’s claim to authority on other matters.

Pope was correct to call for an end to the death penalty in all cases.

The Vatican’s announcement that the death penalty is now ‘inadmissible’ has no basis in Scripture or the Church Fathers.

The Vatican discouraged the death penalty but now rejects it outright. Fine. The teaching is prudential, not infallible.

Here's what else you need to know to Get Up to Speed and Out the Door.

Pope Francis has declared the death penalty “inadmissible.” This means that the death penalty should not be used in any circumstance. It also alters the Catholic Catechism, a compendium of Catholic doctrine, and is now binding on Roman Catholics throughout the world. But in spite of his definitive statement, Pope Francis’ act will probably only deepen the debate about whether Christians can support capital punishment. As a Catholic scholar who writes about religion, politics and …

Pope Francis has said that death penalty violates the dignity of a person. But, this might just deepen the debate among Christians, who for a long time have been divided over the issue.

Pope Francis has approved a change to Catholic teaching, ruling the death penalty inadmissible in any case, Chris Cuomo said on CNN Thursday night. Cuomo, who clearly knows his Catholic catechism, took a moment to explain what that means, and why non-Catholic Americans might care. "Even a person who does something horrible can be redeemed, deserves dignity, that's the point that he's making," he explained. "This is smart on one level, stunning on another," Cuomo said. "The smart part is squaring the logic of being pro-life: If you believe that you don't mess with life in one area, you don't mess with it, period. It's logical, and it plays to an inconsistency that we see here in America," where "many who call themselves pro-life are also pro–death penalty," an inconsistency that's "always struck me as odd," he added. "For believers, either the Big Man calls the shots of who lives and who dies, or we do — which is it?" The "stunning" part is the scope of the pope's consistent embrace of life. When he was called Jorge Bergoglio in Argentina, Pope Francis "wasn't only a huge opponent of the death penalty, but of inequities of how we treat the living," Cuomo said. "His argument has always been that if you are pro-life, you are pro–all life, equally. So the question for you is, are you pro-life?" If you answered yes, he had some pointed followup questions. "The pope is just as strong on respecting those lives as he is an unborn baby," he said. "Are you?" You can watch his entire argument and decide below, and Cuomo said he wants your feedback, too. Peter Weber

Pope Francis has acknowledged that it degrades us as a society to kill people as public policy, and this leads to a citizenry that devalues life itself. In a country such as the US, where murder is commonplace, we should be doing everything we can to show our disgust at the taking of life, Jay Parini says.

On Thursday, the Vatican published an updated Catholic policy on the death penalty, ruling it "inadmissible" in all cases. Previously, the Catechism of the Catholic Church — the compilation of official Catholic teachings — allowed capital punishment only "if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor." Under the new policy, approved by Pope Francis in the spring, "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,' and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide." The Vatican explained the new teaching as an evolution of church policy, not a break.

Pope Francis, though not an intellectual leader like his predecessors, is more right than wrong about the death penalty.

The pope argued the death penalty is an attack on the dignity of humans. He has a point.

Pope Francis earned a standing ovation when he told Congress in 2015 that he supports protecting human life "at every stage of its development." When he added that "this conviction" includes working to end the death penalty, the response was far more subdued.

Pope Francis has long railed against the death penalty, insisting it can never be justified, no matter how heinous the crime.

Pope Francis has approved changes to the Catechism that clarify that the Catholic Church views the death penalty as being “inadmissible” in all circumstances. What are the details? While it is still noteworthy, this is by no means a reversal of prior Catholic doctrine. The Catholic Church had already held that the death penalty was forbidden except in specific cases when public safety was a concern. The previous version of this part of the Catechism, which was written in 1997, stated that instances where the death penalty was permissible were “very rare, if not practically nonexistent.” In October, Pope Francis requested that the wording of the Catechism of the Catholic Church be updated to reflect that in modern times even this exception was no longer necessary. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith came up with a revised version of the Catechism that stated that the death penalty was no longer permissible in …

In what amounts to a significant, albeit not surprising, change in Catholic doctrine, Pope Francis has declared that the death penalty is unacceptable in all circumstances.

The Latest on the pope’s move to change Catholic church teaching on the death penalty (all times local):

Nick Givas Pope Francis is steering the Catholic church away from supporting the death penalty in a new papal policy released on Thursday. Francis called the death penalty “inadmissible” and said it “attacks” the dignity of all humans, according to The Associated Press. Francis is making a major change to the faith’s Catechism, as Catholicism used to

Pope Francis has officially made the death penalty “never admissible” in the Catholic Church.

The church’s catechism now calls capital punishment “inadmissible” and says it’s “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”