USAupdated 1h ago2 min read
Pope Leo XIV Condemns U.S. Livestream Firing Squad Execution of Nidal Malik Hasan
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Pope Leo XIV declares death penalty inadmissible on World Day Against the Death Penalty. U.S. Defense Department plans to livestream Hasan's execution by firing squad.
Pope Leo vs U.S. livestream
Pope Leo XIV condemned the death penalty as “inadmissible” while the United States prepared to livestream an execution by firing squad.
Pope Leo XIV wrote on X that “The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment,” and he marked World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, called the planned public execution “unacceptable,” and he said it was “unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.”
The U.S. Defense Department announced Thursday that the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base, would be livestreamed on Dec. 3.
The execution plan centered on Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in the Fort Hood attack in 2009.
U.S. political split
President Donald Trump said Saturday he would be making a decision on whether the execution would be livestreamed, and he told reporters, “I really don't care how he goes, as long as he goes.”
Vice President J. D. Vance said he would not watch the live broadcast if it happened, and he told reporters, “I’m not going to be watching it.”
Republican representative Austin Scott said he supported executing Hassan but argued that “livestreaming executions is what Jihadists do. America is better than that.”
Senator Mark Kelly said Hasan should “face justice,” but he called public executions “the kind of thing that Iran and the Taliban do. Is this who we want to be associated with?”
The Pentagon’s plan for a livestream execution was described as fueling outrage across the U.S. political divide, with the debate tied to the Fort Hood case and the Dec. 3 date.
What is at stake
The Vatican framed the livestream plan as a moral and religious problem, with Cardinal Pietro Parolin saying it was “unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.”
Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the U.S. bishops conference, said the decision was “a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” and he added that a public execution would “only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation.”
The U.S. debate also included the fact that Hasan was expected to be put to death in a live-streamed execution, most likely on 3 December, after the Defense Department announced the firing squad plan.
Pope Leo XIV’s message on X reiterated Catholic teaching that capital punishment “attacks the inherent dignity of the person,” and it ended with the hashtag #NoDeathPenalty.
The controversy was tied to the Fort Hood shooting in 2009, where Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others, and the planned livestream was set for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood.