In a meeting yesterday with representatives of the International Association of Penal Law, Pope Francis said: "All Christians and people of good will are thus called today to struggle not only for abolition of the death penalty, whether it be legal or illegal and in all its forms, but also to improve prison conditions, out of respect for the human dignity of persons deprived of their liberty.

"And this," he continued, "I connect with life imprisonment. Life imprisonment is a hidden death penalty." ...