Pope John Paul II Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Capital punishment === John Paul II was an outspoken opponent of the death penalty, although previous popes had accepted the practice. At a papal mass in [[St. Louis, Missouri]], in the United States he said: <blockquote>"A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/node/1403 |title=Religious Views: Pope John Paul II's Statements on the Death Penalty |publisher=Death Penalty Information Center |access-date=3 November 2013}}</ref></blockquote> During that visit, John Paul II convinced the then [[Governor (United States)|governor]] of Missouri, [[Mel Carnahan]], to reduce the death sentence of convicted murderer Darrell J. Mease to life imprisonment without parole.<ref>Trigilio Jr., Rev. John, Rev. Kenneth Brighenti and Rev. Jonathan Toborowsky. ''John Paul II for Dummies'', p. 140, John Wiley & Sons, 2011 {{ISBN|978-0-471-77382-5}}</ref> John Paul II's other attempts to reduce the sentence of [[death-row]] inmates were unsuccessful. In 1983, John Paul II visited [[Guatemala]] and unsuccessfully asked the country's president, [[Efraín Ríos Montt]], to reduce the sentence for six left-wing guerrillas sentenced to death.<ref>Virginia Garrard-Burnett. ''Terror in the Land of the Holy Spirit: Guatemala Under General Efrain Rios Montt, 1982–1983'', pp. 20–21, John Wiley & Sons, 2010 {{ISBN|978-0-19-537964-8}}</ref> In 2002, John Paul II again travelled to Guatemala. At that time, Guatemala was one of only two countries in Latin America (the other being Cuba) to apply capital punishment. John Paul II asked the Guatemalan president, [[Alfonso Portillo]], for a moratorium on executions.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0802/p07s02-woam.html/(page)/3 |title=With Papal Prodding, Guatemala May End Executions |newspaper=[[The Christian Science Monitor]] |date=24 May 2013 |access-date=3 November 2013}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page