In com­ments to reporters on September 30, 2025, Pope Leo XIV said that sup­port­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment was incon­sis­tent with being pro-life. The announce­ment drew crit­i­cism from sev­er­al American bish­ops who object­ed based on Sen. Durbin’s sup­port for legalized abortion. “Someone who says, ​‘I’m against abor­tion’ but says, ​‘I’m in favor of the death penal­ty,’ is not real­ly pro-life,” Pope Leo stat­ed. In August 2018, the Vatican announced that Pope Leo XIV’s pre­de­ces­sor, Pope Francis, for­mal­ly changed the offi­cial Catholic Church teach­ing on the death penal­ty, call­ing the prac­tice ​“an attack on the invi­o­la­bil­i­ty and dig­ni­ty of the per­son,” adding that it is ​“inad­mis­si­ble” in all cas­es. The cat­e­chism change unam­bigu­ous­ly opposed cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and com­mit­ted the church to work ​“with deter­mi­na­tion” to abol­ish the death penal­ty across the globe.