Vatican
City, 23 October 2014
(VIS) - Today, the Holy Father received delegates from the
International Association of Penal Law (AIDP), addressing them with a
speech focusing on the issues in their subject area that have
recourse to the Church in her mission of evangelization and the
promotion of the human person.
The
Pope began by recalling the need for legal and political methods that
are not characterized by the mythological “scapegoat” logic, that
is, of an individual unjustly accused of the misfortunes that befall
a community and then chosen to be sacrificed. It is also necessary to
refute the belief that legal sanctions carry benefit, which requires
the implementation of inclusive economic and social policies. He
reiterated the primacy of the life and dignity of the human person,
reaffirming the absolute condemnation of the death penalty, the use
of which is rejected by Christians. In this context he also talked
about the so-called extrajudicial executions, that is, the
deliberated killing of individuals by some states or their agents
that are presented as the unintended consequence of the reasonable,
necessary, and proportionate use of force to implement the law. He
emphasized that the death penalty is used in totalitarian regimes as
“an instrument of suppression of political dissent or of
persecution of religious or cultural minorities”.
He
then spoke of the conditions of prisoners, including prisoners who
have not been convicted and those convicted without a trial, stating
that pretrial detention, when used improperly, is another modern form
of unlawful punishment that is hidden behind legality. He also
referred to the deplorable prison condition in much of the world,
sometimes due to lack of infrastructure while other instances are the
result of “the arbitrary exercise of ruthless power over
detainees”. Pope Francis also spoke about torture and other inhuman
and degrading treatment, stating that, in the world today, torture is
used not only as a means to achieve a particular purpose, such as a
confession or an accusation—practices that are characteristic of a
doctrine of national security—but also adds to the evil of
detention. Criminal code itself bears responsibility for having
allowed, in certain cases, the legitimacy of torture under certain
conditions, opening the way for further abuse.
The
Pope did not forget the application of criminal sanctions against
children and the elderly, condemning its use in both cases. He also
recalled some forms of crime that seriously damage the dignity of the
human person as well as the common good, including human trafficking,
slavery—recognized as a crime against humanity as well as a war
crime in both international law and under many nations’ laws—the
abject poverty in which more than a billion people live, and
corruption. “The scandalous accumulation of global wealth is
possible because of the connivance of those with strong powers who
are responsible for public affairs. Corruption is a process of death
… more evil than sin. An evil that, instead of being forgiven, must
be cured.”
“Caution
in the application of penal codes,” he concluded, “must be the
overarching principle of legal systems … and respect for human
dignity must not only act to limit the arbitrariness and excesses of
government agents but as the guiding criterion for prosecuting and
punishing behaviors that represent the most serious attacks on the
dignity and integrity of the human person.”
