Pope Leo XIV is showing no signs of slowing down a day after his return to Rome from what must have been a grueling 11-day trip to Africa. As folks in his native Illinois gathered at DePaul University in Chicago to celebrate the state’s abolition of the death penalty 15 years ago, attendees at the afternoon conference on April 24 were no doubt astonished to welcome a surprise guest. Pope Leo joined them through a prerecorded video message, “celebrating the decision made by the Governor of Illinois in 2011.”
Leo offered his support “to those who advocate for the abolition of the death penalty in the United States of America and around the world.”
“I pray that your efforts will lead to a greater acknowledgement of the dignity of every person, and will inspire others to work for the same just cause,” the pope said.
“The Catholic Church,” Leo said, “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. For this reason, only when a society safeguards the sanctity of human life will it flourish and prosper.”
The church, he said, affirms “that the dignity of the person is not lost even after very serious crimes are committed.” He said effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens “while not completely [depriving] those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption.”
“This is why 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. Consequently, the Church teaches that ‘the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.’”
Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy, the executive director of Catholic Mobilizing Network, a national anti-death penalty advocacy that works in collaboration with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said in a press statement that it was “absolutely thrilling to hear the first American Pope’s encouraging words about death penalty abolition efforts in his home state and country.”
“It indicates the closeness of the Holy Father Pope Leo to the Church’s indefatigable work across the nation to end this death-dealing practice. Pope Leo makes it crystal clear that the death penalty is a priority for the universal Church.”
In March 2011, Illinois became the 16th state since 1847 to abolish the death penalty. Many other states have followed Illinois’s lead, and now 26 states and the District of Columbia have outlawed capital punishment.
The Depaul University event, “A Beacon of Light in Darkness,” included reflections from noted anti-death penalty crusader Helen Prejean, C.S.J., and honored former Governor Pat Quinn, who ended the use of capital punishment in Illinois.
Executions in the United States experienced a sharp increase in 2025, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Executions rose from 25 in 2024 to 47 in 2025. The D.P.I.C. reports that the spike in executions is due almost entirely to a dramatic increase in executions in Florida, which alone accounted for 19 executions, or 40 percent of the year’s total.
But even as executions rose, public support for capital punishment in the United States reached historic lows. A Gallup poll in October 2025 found that support for the death penalty hit a 50-year low of 52 percent. Gallup also found that 44 percent of Americans now oppose the death penalty — the highest level of opposition recorded since May 1966.
The pope’s video appearance before his hometown audience came on the same day that the U.S. Justice Department announced that it would allow firing squads as a permitted method of execution as the Trump administration moves to ramp up and expedite capital punishment cases.
The Justice Department is also reauthorizing the use of single-drug lethal injections with pentobarbital that were used to carry out 13 executions during the first Trump administration—more than under any president in modern history. The Biden administration had removed pentobarbital from the federal protocol over concerns about the potential for unnecessary pain and suffering.
The Associated Press reports that the moves were announced as part of a broader push to step up federal executions after a moratorium under the Biden administration. Only three defendants remain on federal death row after former President Joe Biden converted 37 of their sentences to life in prison, though the Trump administration has so far authorized seeking death sentences against 44 federal defendants.
The federal government has not previously included firing squad as a method of execution in its protocols, according to the Death Penalty Information Center. Five states currently allow executions by firing squad: Idaho, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Utah.
A number of states allow other methods of execution, including electrocution, inhaling nitrogen gas or death by firing squad.
With reporting from The Associated Press
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