The archbishop for the U.S. military says any Catholic service members who are assigned to participate in the livestreamed firing-squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan should ask to be excused — the latest pushback against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plan.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio released a statement Monday to “express my disapproval of what is proposed regarding the execution of the terrorist Hasan,” referring to Hegseth’s announcement last week that Hasan’s execution in December would be publicly viewable.
Broglio pointed to the Catholic Church’s opposition to the death penalty. He also warned of “moral injury” to service members who are tasked with carrying out the execution, and asked: “Do we really want to imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries?”
“The US military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world,” wrote Broglio. “Is there really a value to throwing them in the same boat with terrorists by broadcasting the image of the execution of a man in a wheel chair to the whole world? Does this decision reflect the dignity of the human person?”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Three days earlier, Pope Leo XIV wrote on social media that the death penalty is “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” The pope did not explicitly reference Hasan’s planned execution or the botched lethal-injection execution of Christa Pike in his post, which coincided with the World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Hegseth said last week the military plans to make the execution public “because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things.”
In 2013, Hasan was convicted by court-martial and sentenced to death for killing 13 people and injuring more than 30 at the Army installation in Fort Hood, Texas. The former Army psychiatrist acknowledged at trial that he was responsible for the shooting, claiming he opened fire on fellow service members in an attempt to protect Islamic insurgents from the U.S. military.
Hasan’s case could mark the U.S. military’s first execution of an American since 1961, and its first use of a firing squad since 1945. Firing squads are also rare in civilian courts.
Publicly viewable executions are virtually unheard of in modern U.S. history: The country’s last large-scale public execution appeared to take place 90 years ago, when Rainey Bethea was hanged for rape in front of a crowd of about 20,000 in Kentucky. Other countries that are believed to carry out public executions include Iran, Afghanistan and North Korea.
Hegseth’s plan to livestream the execution has drawn criticism from members of both parties, including a growing number of congressional Republicans. Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said “I would expect this from terrorists and dictators, but not here in America,” and Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said the “death penalty is not entertainment.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson told CBS News some of his House Republican colleagues have “concerns,” which he plans to bring to the White House.
“The concern would be that you would create a video that would be a recruiting tool for future terrorists. You know, we’ve got to think through the policy implications of all that,” Johnson told CBS News’ Robert Costa. “I wouldn’t be watching it if it was aired. But there’s a lot of opinions on that. I think there’s still some time to talk about that.”
Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, told reporters last week that “if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it.”
