Pope Leo Calls Death Penalty 'Inadmissible' as Vance Says He Won't Watch Hasan Livestream

Since Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced Thursday, Oct. 8 that the Pentagon would livestream the firing squad execution of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Hasan, the objections have come from the Vatican, the U.S. Catholic hierarchy, a Republican senator and now the vice president.

The pope weighs in, indirectly

Pope Leo XIV posted on X on Saturday, Oct. 10, the World Day Against the Death Penalty. "The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person," he wrote.

He added that "effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption."

The post did not mention Hasan, the Pentagon or the United States. The observance falls on Oct. 10 every year, and Pope Francis marked it with a similar post in 2024. In 2018 Francis revised the Catechism to call the death penalty inadmissible in all cases.

The Pentagon declined to comment on the pope's criticism.

Parolin and the U.S. bishops were more direct

Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, spoke to reporters Friday and addressed the plan directly. "It is truly incomprehensible that anyone would want to use this method in this day and age," he said. "I do not know for what purpose. It is certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle. However guilty the person may be, there are other ways."

Parolin also said the Church considers the death penalty incompatible with human dignity and that it "does not serve as a deterrent."

Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, expressed "shock" and "great sorrow." He put out a statement Friday.

"In no way can Hasan's actions be condoned, but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered," Coakley said. He warned that a public execution "will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation."

The Pentagon's stated reason

Hegseth has explained the livestream in terms of consequences. "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things," he told a conservative outlet.

That is a different argument from the Church's. Parolin says capital punishment is no deterrent. Hegseth says publicity is the point.

The execution is set for Dec. 3 at Fort Hood. Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 in the November 2009 attack. A military court sentenced him to death in 2013. It would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961.

Vance keeps his distance

Asked about the plan Friday, Vance did not endorse it. "I've seen these announcements. I don't know that that's actually going to happen," he said. "I think it's going to happen in December when he's executed."

He called Hasan's attack, in his view, "the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11," and said Hasan targeted soldiers he was supposed to be treating. "Whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don't forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people."

Then came the line that made headlines: "If it's all through livestream, I'm not going to be watching it."

Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., was blunter. "Hasan should face the death penalty, but making his execution public and streaming it? Beyond disgusting," he said. "Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do. It should not be happening in America."

Neither Vance nor Tillis is defending Hasan. Both accept the sentence and object to the broadcast. That is a narrower fight than death penalty yes-or-no, and it is happening inside the administration's own party.

Old friction, new venue

Leo and the administration have clashed before. This spring he answered Hegseth's call for Americans to pray "on bended knee" for military victory in the Middle East by warning against a Christian mission "distorted by a desire for domination." Days later President Trump called the pope "WEAK on Crime, and terrible for foreign policy" on Truth Social. Leo has also criticized the administration's "remigration" policy on immigration.

The Tennessee backdrop is relevant too. The botched lethal injection of Christa Pike in late September had already revived the debate over the death penalty in the United States.

What comes next

Vatican News notes that further legal proceedings could delay the Dec. 3 date. Whether Hegseth's announcement survives as stated is unclear: Vance says he doesn't know that it will.