It is because the alleged Pope is a Liberal and see's the criminal as the good
guy, and the victim as the bad guy for being at the wrong place at the
wrong time.
Ever since this attitude was adopted by many of the intellectual elites
in the 1960's. Violent crime has skyrocketed. The true figures are
suppressed in the media so the public are not aware of the increasing
crime.
Liberalisms thrives in a violent crime ridden environment because
the Liberals blame the environment and will go out of the way to not
to blame the individual for his actions.
The trillion of dollars spent in the War on Poverty programs have not
decreased crime. It has empowered a welfare class to vote for liberal
candidates to increase their benefits. Also empowers a class that
administers the programs that lobby for more money.
States and Countries that have the Death Penalty has a lower crime
rates than those that abolished the Death Penalty.
Murderers that sentenced for life, many times get out of prison less
than 20 years serve because of the increasing prison population.
Many have been sent back to prison because they have committed
a violent crime after their release.
A murderer in prison that kills a prison guard, or a fellow inmate.
All that can be done to resentence him to another life term.
 

Leftist libtards!

Traditionally, the Holy Roman Catholic Church always defended the right of the State to administer the death penalty (even the Vatican City and other papal states formerly used it!), in order to protect the citizenry from a repeat offense, but also for reasons of "expiation" and even the spiritual welfare of the guilty, because the sentence could lead to a possible conversion.

Again, this prohibition [of killing] does not apply to the civil magistrate, to whom is entrusted the power of life and death, by the legal and judicious exercise of which he punishes the guilty and protects the innocent. The use of the civil sword, when wielded by the hand of justice, far from involving the crime of murder, is an act of paramount obedience to this commandment which prohibits murder. The end of the commandment is the preservation and sanctity of human life, and to the attainment of this end, the punishments inflicted by the civil magistrate, who is the legitimate avenger of crime, naturally tend, giving security to life by repressing outrage and violence.

"It must not be forgotten that the death penalty, like any criminal penalty, serves as a form of expiation. That is why prisons were once called penitentiaries. As Saint Thomas observes in the Summa:

“Even death inflicted as a punishment for crimes takes away the whole punishment for those crimes in the next life, or at least part of that punishment, according to the quantities of guilt, resignation, and contrition; but a natural death does not.” (Cf. Romano Amerio Iota Unum, 435).

Further, in the case of capital punishment the expiatory penalty reflects the sin of one whose grave crime has caused him to lose the right to life. Some 700 years after the Summa, Pope Pius XII repeated the constant teaching of the Church in this regard":

“Even when it is a question of someone condemned to death, the state does not dispose of an individual’s right to life. It is then the task of public authority to deprive the condemned man of the good of life, in expiation of his fault, after he has already deprived himself of the right to life by his crime.” (AAS, 1952, pp. 779 et. seq)"

http://www.crisismagazine.com/2011/can-the-church-ban-capital-punishment

No, it's not just because of seeing the criminal as the "good guy".  We are to have compassion even for the guilty.

Where the error comes from is this false notion that people on their own have an inalienable "right to life" ... even apart from God.  It comes from decades of bogus "Pro Life" rhetoric which constantly drivels on about the human being's right to life.  Instead, what's REALLY at issue is GOD'S rights over life (and death).  God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, and his compliance was considered so praiseworthy as to have God set him up as the father of the race into which Our Lord would be born.  It's sheer HUMANISM, the replacement of God with man.  And, in that context, of course it makes sense that the death penalty would be wrong.  In Traditional Catholic theology, however, the state exercises the authority of God over society, and so the state can take away life (for just and proportionate causes) ... precisely because God can take life whenever He so wills it.  That's the distortion at the root cause of this error, the so-called "seamless garment" BS.  It's only "seamless" due to their inability to make the proper theological distinctions.

Or he has a terrible translator.

Quote from: Bergoglio

"The commandment "You shall not kill," has absolute value and applies to both the innocent and the guilty," he told the crowd.

Idiots should not be allowed to teach basic catechism, much less function as popes.

EVERYONE knows that the Hebrew term for "kill" in the Commandments very clearly connotes "murder" (the unjust taking of life).  God Himself many times commanded the Israelites to kill their enemies and asked Abraham to sacrifice his son.  Absolute my ass.  He has no idea what the term "absolute" means.  Only GOD is "absolute".

Well said.
On top of that, the God-sanctioned smithing of the wicked, direct and indirect, capital punishment was commonplace in the Mosaic Law, for instance even applying to impure wives:



Deuteronomy 22:20–21


Also, capital punishment for all sorts of crimes has been a Church approved practice well into modern times.

If I recall correctly even JPII's Catechism still approves it.

On the subject, I remember reading about Cesare Beccaria's "On Crimes and Punishments" that the 18th century humanist and father of modern abolitionist movement argued that capital punishment was useless in part because the lowly, deeply religious, uncultured populace did not fear it, blindly believing in an Afterlife.

He's right. Capital punishment starts to become a "crime" and some sort of supreme horror only when a religious outlook on life, reality and society itself is abandoned.

For an atheist, death is the end of everything, hence murder the most grave of acts (not that it stops them hypocritically murdering innocents such as infants or even the elderly as it's becoming common though, as they are completely amoral).

Death penalty ceases to be what it was always meant to be: not a cruel, wicked punishment but a just purifying correction and safeguard for the common good.

Nope Francis & his ilk can only share their views only because they ultimately do not believe in God, truly.

Capital punishment starts to become a "crime" and some sort of supreme horror only when a religious outlook on life, reality and society itself is abandoned.

For an atheist, death is the end of everything....

Death penalty ceases to be what it was always meant to be: ....a just purifying correction and safeguard for the common good.

Yes but what of those whose atheism evaporates at the thought of impending death? It has a saving face that a sudden unexpected death has not. Criminals have notice, and a given time, to put their lives right before God by repentance. Is this not a mark of God's Mercy?