Vatican Issues Rare Condemnation; US Plan to Broadcast Hasan Execution Draws Bipartisan Lawmaker Opposition

According to Al Jazeera reporting, Pope Leo XIV posted on the social media platform X on the 10th, characterizing capital punishment as "unacceptable, because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the human person." The statement coincided with the "World Day Against the Death Penalty" (October 11), coming less than 48 hours after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan on December 3 would be broadcast publicly.

Hegseth announced on Thursday that Hasan would be executed by firing squad and that the proceeding would be broadcast to the public. Hasan carried out the shooting at Fort Hood military base in Texas in 2009, killing 13 people and wounding 32, and has been convicted. An American citizen, Pope Leo XIV made his statement on the death penalty while his own government was moving forward with this public execution plan.

Pope Leo XIV wrote in his post: "The common good can be protected, and the demands of justice can be met, without recourse to the ultimate punishment." He added: "Effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens without entirely removing the possibility of repentance for the condemned." Al Jazeera noted that Leo XIV did not directly reference the Hasan case or last month's botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in Tennessee, but his post came just hours after remarks by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin.

Parolin told Vatican News that the plan to broadcast Hasan's execution was "unacceptable." Al Jazeera recalled that in 2018, then-Pope Francis first revised official Catholic doctrine to declare the death penalty "unacceptable in all cases," whereas the previous doctrine had only excluded the ultimate punishment when "necessary for the effective defense of human life."

The plan to broadcast the execution also sparked backlash at both ends of the American political spectrum. Al Jazeera, citing Republican Representative Austin Scott, reported that he supports executing Hasan, but "broadcasting an execution is something jihadists do, and America should be better than that." Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said that Hasan should "face justice," but that a public execution "is something Iran and the Taliban would do — is that what we want to be compared to?"

However, uncertainty remains over whether the execution will actually be broadcast. Pentagon officials confirmed the broadcast plan on Thursday, Al Jazeera reported, but US Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic, expressed doubt on Friday about whether the plan would proceed, telling reporters, "I won't be watching."