Pope says death penalty is ‘inadmissible’ after head of U.S. bishops calls DOD plan to livestream execution ‘barbaric promotion of a culture of death’

Pope Leo XIV declared on Saturday that capital punishment is "inadmissible" amid the U.S. Defense Department's plan to livestream the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted of killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009. The American pope highlighted that the revised Catholic stance on capital punishment, introduced by Pope Francis, asserts that the death penalty insults a person's inherent dignity, stating, "The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment."

The post was shared on Leo's X account using the handle @Pontifex and included the hashtag #NoDeathPenalty.

The U.S. Defense Department announced the livestreamed execution of Hasan, who is slated for execution on Dec. 3, at Fort Hood. President Donald Trump expressed his decision-making authority over the execution's livestreaming. Pope Leo didn't directly address the planned execution or the botched lethal injection in Tennessee, which reignited discussions about the death penalty in the United States.

Saturday marks World Day Against the Death Penalty, a day when the pope's official social media accounts frequently post messages commemorating the occasion. However, Leo's post arrived just hours after his top deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, explicitly denounced the U.S. public execution as "unacceptable."

Cardinal Parolin emphasized that the planned public execution was "truly incomprehensible" and "unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle." He stressed that the Church's stance on the death penalty is one of complete opposition, incompatible with human dignity and serving no deterrent purpose. Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the U.S. bishops conference, expressed shock and deep sorrow at the Pentagon's plans, asserting that the execution would only further erode the moral fabric of the nation and tarnish the conscience of its people.