‘Culture of death’: Florida bishops urge Catholics to work to end the death penalty

Florida’s Catholic bishops are urging state residents to work to bring about an end to the death penalty, describing it as a “culture of death” and incompatible with a full Catholic understanding of the value of human life.

The eight prelates — including Miami Archbishop Thomas Wenski, Palm Beach Bishop Manuel de Jesús Rodríguez, and several others throughout the state — issued the message amid large numbers of executions in Florida.

The state executed 19 condemned prisoners in 2025, helping drive a rise in capital punishment throughout the United States. Florida has executed 10 inmates thus far in 2026 and is scheduled to perform a rare double execution on July 28.

In their letter, Florida’s Catholic bishops, who regularly advocate on behalf of condemned prisoners there, urged Catholics toward a “renewed consideration” of capital punishment, one informed by “the teaching of the Church and her moral authority.”

“[W]e wish to remind Catholics of the teaching of our Church against the use
of the death penalty in situations — like our own — where bloodless means are sufficient to punish offenders and protect public safety,” the bishops said.

They pointed out that Jesus in his teaching revealed that “God desires to offer mercy to sinners who do not deserve it.”

While the prelates acknowledged that parts of Scripture “condone the death penalty at least in certain circumstances,” they argued that the “fullest development of God’s revelation of his will” points away from capital punishment.

In addition, they cited papal teachings such as Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae, in which the now-sainted pope urged that modern secure penal systems have made it “very rare, if not practically nonexistent” for the death penalty to be justified.

At the same time, the bishops also acknowledged the horrific nature of crimes and the need for “deep sympathy and compassion” for family members who have lost loved ones to murder.

“We agree that the perpetrators of such crimes should be brought to justice, but we disagree that justice is best served by yet another act of killing,” they said.

The bishops said they will continue to work to abolish the death penalty; they further urged both Catholics and “fellow citizens of goodwill” to work to end the practice as well.

Though executions in the U.S. were up in 2025, data indicate a growing public opposition to the death penalty, both in poll numbers and in the declining number of prisoners condemned to death in the United States.

Data from the Death Penalty Information Center indicates that new death sentences were down in 2025, declining to 22 from 24, with “only 14 juries nationwide” reaching unanimous death verdicts.

A Gallup poll in 2025, meanwhile, found that public support for the death penalty reached a 50-year low of 52%, while 44% of Americans oppose the death penalty, the highest level recorded since 1966.