One of the most important stands of the Catholic Church is that of being pro-life. God created all human beings in His own image and likeness and loves each of us as His own beloved child. Because of this, every human being is of infinite value and must be loved as a child of God. This applies to every human being from the moment of conception to natural death. Anything that denies, demeans, degrades or diminishes any human life does so to all human life and is a grave sin.
    
Is there any circumstance that the Church recognizes that justifies the taking of a human life? If taking the life of another person is required to defend one’s own life, or that of another innocent person, then it is morally justified. But if we can defend ourselves or another without taking a life, it is not justified.

For these reasons war, capital punishment, murder, etc. are all condemned by the Church. Pope Leo recently said that if someone opposes abortion but supports capital punishment, they may be anti-abortion, but they are not pro-life. There are others who strongly oppose capital punishment, but who support abortion. Clearly, they cannot truly call themselves pro-life.