San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone tweeted about his article in America Magazine that focuses on the Catholic teaching on the death penalty. In it, he asserts that capital punishment is no longer necessary. 

“Criminal justice is also social justice,” Cordileone tweeted. “When crime rates soar, it is the least among us, the poor and minorities, who pay the highest price. But today we no longer need capital punishment to protect the common good.” 

Although the death penalty is not an “intrinsic evil” like abortion (the killing of an innocent life), abolishing capital punishment is a necessary good, Cordileone said in his article. He cited Pope Francis’ decision to revise the Catechism in 2018. It now says that capital punishment “is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” and stating that the church works “for its abolition worldwide.” 

The Diocese of Pensacola-Tallahassee has long publicly opposed capital punishment. It has a webpage dedicated to “help end the death penalty” with a prayer to abolish the death penalty and resources behind the Catechism’s writings of the death penalty. 

Cordileone provided arguments for his opinion. One is that he says it doesn’t act as a deterrent. He quoted a 2020 study from Japan (published by the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University), that stated, “Neither the death sentence rate nor the execution rate has a statistically significant effect on the homicide and robbery-homicide rates, whereas the life sentence rate has a significant negative effect on the robbery-homicide rate.” 

Cordileone said the possibility of executing an innocent person should be reason enough to rethink capital punishment.

“Those of us who follow Jesus Christ must also consider this: Our Lord—who from the cross where he was wrongly executed called out, ‘Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do’ —teaches us that we must be concerned with the soul of the guilty,” Cordileone wrote in his article. “The death penalty abruptly ends the possibility of conversion and mercy.” 

The Catholic Church wholly opposes the death penalty. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) cited a recent papal statement about the Church’s opposition to it.

”The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life in every situation,” St. Pope John Paul II said in 1999. “A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. . . . I renew the appeal I made . . . for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.” 

Pope Francis echoed Pope John Paul II's view when he wrote “Fratelli Tutti.” In it, he called on Catholics to work toward abolishing the death penalty, America Magazine says. 

"Today we state clearly that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible’ and the Church is firmly committed to calling for its abolition worldwide,” Pope Francis said in his encyclical, which is an authoritative Church document.