Pope Leo Calls Death Penalty ‘Inadmissible’ as Pentagon Plans Livestreamed Execution
publishers 24articles 25first reported 10 Oct, 14:13 UTCdeveloping since 10 Oct · 8 editions
Pope Leo XIV declared capital punishment “inadmissible” on Saturday as he marked World Day Against the Death Penalty, days after the U.S. Defense Department said it planned to livestream the execution of former Army Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.
“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” Leo wrote on X, reiterating Catholic teaching revised under Pope Francis in 2018. He said public safety and justice can be maintained without capital punishment and that detention systems can protect citizens while preserving the possibility of redemption.
Leo did not specifically mention Hasan or the Pentagon’s plan. Hasan is scheduled to be executed by firing squad at Fort Hood, Texas, on Dec. 3 for killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a 2009 shooting. It would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961.
Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin directly criticized the proposed broadcast, calling it “unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.” Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, urged the Pentagon to reconsider, describing the plan as a “barbaric promotion of a culture of death.”
The livestream proposal also drew criticism from Republican Rep. Austin Scott and Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly. President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would ultimately decide whether the execution would be broadcast, while supporting Hasan’s execution by firing squad.
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Written from 8 articles, 5 with the publisher's own text; 7 independent newsrooms once syndicated copies count as one; this version written 24 h after the record first saw the story; the editor kept it as written.
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- This version written
- 24 h after the record first saw the story
- Second model (editor)
- kept as written
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