That’s Frankenchurch, not the Catholic Church.
NPR is not a reliable reporter of matters relating to the Catholic Church. I am aware of the 2018 description of capital punishment as “inadmissible”. That is a meaningless term in moral theology. Because it’s meaningless, it can safely be ignored. The Pope wants you to believe that capital punishment is immoral, yet he did not dare to use that word, because he could not. In statements like this, popes choose their words with extreme care. This is not a matter of “ oops, I meant to say “. This is verbal trickery, and you fell for it.
What kind of fool considers NPR’s reporting, especially on a matter in which we know there’s strong editorial bias, as reliable? What’s its level of competence in parsing ChurchSpeak? What’s the editorial bias of those who get their news from NPR? What message are they most likely to accept uncritically?
No serious moral theologian considers the 2018 statement as having moved the needle on the essential moral quality of capital punishment. They all know that in the old testament, the Lord himself prescribes capital punishment on occasion. There’s no getting around that. Francis is well aware that he’s unable to pronounce capital punishment as immoral, without trapping himself in hopeless contradictions. The official text says “ inadmissible “. It might as well say “ inappropriate “. That is a practical ruling, not a moral one. If it means anything at all, it means that penal systems no longer need capital punishment to function effectively. That may or may not be true, but in any case, the practical question of efficacy lies outside the competence of moral theology.
I hope this helps.