The Vatican announced [press release] Thursday that Pope Francis has declared that the death penalty is “inadmissible,” calling it “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.”

The Pontiff’s announcement accompanied a revision made to number 2267 [text] by the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

There is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes… [M]ore effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

The change was initially brought before Pope Francis on May 18. The Pontiff approved the revision before the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on the same day.

In declaring the death penalty inadmissible, Pope Francis acknowledged that previous papacies have applied the death penalty before, and he apologized for this. In the Pontiff’s view, the death penalty deprives one of dignity, inviolability, and the opportunity for redemption, which is more legalistic rather than in accordance with Christian teachings.

The revised Catechism advocates abolishment of the death penalty worldwide.