&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "'Attack on dignity': Pope Leo XIV takes fresh swipe at Trump; the most explosive moment yet in their public feud")
Hours after the Justice Department announced it was lifting the federal moratorium on capital punishment and reinstating firing squad executions, Pope Leo XIV, in a pointed video message, condemned the death penalty. The timing of the video left little ambiguity about where the Pope stood, or who he was addressing. "The dignity of the person is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed," Leo said in a message sent to DePaul University, a Catholic institution in his native Chicago, marking the 15th anniversary of Illinois abolishing capital punishment.
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What did the Pope say?
In a pointed message, the head of the Catholic Church, who in recent days has been engaged in a very public feud with US President Donald Trump, highlighted that every life is sacred. "The Catholic Church has consistently taught that each human life, from the moment of conception until natural death, is sacred and deserves to be protected. Indeed, the right to life is the very foundation of every other human right," he said.
Acknowledging that those who commit a crime need to be punished, he suggested that instead of such hardline penalties, methods that protect the citizens while giving the guilty a shot at "redemption" could be embraced. "Furthermore, effective systems of detention can be and have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption."
The pope also invoked his predecessors to make clear this wasn't just a personal opinion. "Pope Francis and my recent predecessors repeatedly insisted that the common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment," he said. "The church teaches that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person."
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US and firing squad punishment
The remarks landed on the same day Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche formally announced the end of a Biden-era moratorium on federal executions, announcing the return of capital punishment, including by firing squad. Blanche also blamed the previous administration for failing to pursue "the ultimate punishment against the most dangerous criminals, including terrorists, child murderers, and cop killers." There had been no federal executions during Biden's presidency or in the first 15 months of Trump's second term. The last federal execution took place in the final days of Trump's first administration.
