Patriarch Kirill says Jesus Christ did not condemn death penalty

According to the official website of the Moscow Patriarchate, he made these remarks in response to questions from participants in the "Time of Heroes" program.

On November 3, Kirill met with members of the "Time of Heroes" program, which is a Kremlin initiative for the Russian soldiers in the war against Ukraine.

Kirill emphasized that the death penalty has been part of human history.

"Jesus Christ did not condemn the death penalty, even though He Himself was unjustly executed. Killing as punishment is an extreme measure, of course. Ideally, people wouldn’t commit crimes warranting such punishment. But as it says in the Word of God: 'Purge the evil person from among you' (1 Cor. 5:13). So, if someone is exceptionally dangerous to society and cannot be contained, the Lord doesn’t say, 'kill him,' but rather, 'remove the evil from yourselves,'" said the Russian patriarch.

He argues that the death penalty is not condemned in Scripture.

"Jesus Himself was unjustly sentenced to death, yet the apostles never declared, 'After such an injustice against our Lord, we must denounce the death penalty as sinful.' There is no such statement anywhere," Kirill remarked.

He further noted that the Russian Church has "never insisted on abolishing this punishment."

"I want to reiterate: the Church has never condemned the death penalty if carried out legally. But it has also never explicitly endorsed executions," Kirill concluded.