Death Penalty

What is the Catholic Church's stance on the death penalty?

The Catholic Church teaches that the death penalty is permissible, but only if there is no other possible way to protect human lives from further harm.

However, Pope John Paul II noted in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that "as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent."