Infallible rejection of the death penalty?

Pope declares death penalty inadmissible, changing Church's stance

Pope Francis has declared that the death penalty is never admissible and that the Catholic Church will work towards its abolition around the world, the Vatican formally announced Thursday.

The change, which has been added to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, makes official a position that the Pope has articulated since he became pontiff.

The church now teaches that "the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person" and states that it will "work with determination towards its abolition worldwide," the Vatican said.

The declaration by Pope Francis, who is spiritual leader to the world's 1.2 billion Catholics, may have particular resonance in the United States, where capital punishment remains legal in 31 states and as a federal punishment.

Was this officially an infallible declaration?

Papal infallibility is a dogma of the Catholic Church that states that, in virtue of the promise of Jesus to Peter, the Pope is preserved from the possibility of error "when, in the exercise of his office as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, in virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church."

This doctrine was defined dogmatically at the First Ecumenical Council of the Vatican of 1869–1870 in the document Pastor aeternus, but had been defended before that, existing already in medieval theology and being the majority opinion at the time of the Counter-Reformation.

According to Catholic theology, there are several concepts important to the understanding of infallible, divine revelation: Sacred Scripture, Sacred Tradition, and the Sacred Magisterium (Teaching Authority). 

The infallible teachings of the Pope are part of the Sacred Magisterium, which also consists of ecumenical councils and the "ordinary and universal magisterium". 

In Catholic theology, papal infallibility is one of the channels of the infallibility of the Church. 

The infallible teachings of the Pope must be based on, or at least not contradict, Sacred Tradition and Sacred Scripture.

And even if they say so, anyone can see it conflicts with the many passages in scripture, both the OT and the NT, that endorse the death penalty and so does not satisfy the official conditions of infallibility.

This will further divide Catholics and will certainly not change many minds.