Pope Leo Condemns Death Penalty as U.S. Prepares to Livestream Fort Hood Execution
Pope Leo condemns death penalty as U.S. plans to livestream Fort Hood execution. Church officials criticize public execution.
POLICY WIRE — City, Country — Pope Leo XIV has denounced capital punishment as ‘inadmissible,’ coinciding with the U.S. decision to broadcast an execution by firing squad.
The pontiff’s message on X, marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty, echoed the Catholic Church’s revised stance under Pope Francis, which asserts that the death penalty violates human dignity. He emphasized that justice can be upheld without resorting to executions, citing modern detention systems that allow for redemption.
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The U.S. Defense Department announced that Nidal Malik Hasan, convicted of a 2009 attack at Fort Hood that killed 13 people, will be executed via firing squad on December 3. This would mark the first military execution in the U.S. since 1961. The plan to livestream the event has sparked widespread backlash from religious and political leaders.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin called the planned execution ‘unacceptable,’ calling it ‘incomprehensible’ to turn death into a spectacle. U.S. bishops also condemned the move, with Archbishop Paul Coakley calling it a ‘barbaric promotion of a culture of death.’ President Trump supported the execution but did not address whether he would watch the livestream.
Reporting by Policy-Wire (PW)
