Pope Leo XIV declared capital punishment “inadmissible” on Saturday as he marked the World Day Against the Death Penalty, while his native United States announced plans to livestream an execution by firing squad.
In a post on X, the American pope cited the revised Catholic teaching introduced by Pope Francis, which holds that the death penalty violates the inherent dignity of every human being.
“The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment,” Leo’s official account, @Pontifex, said. “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 message concluded with the hashtag #NoDeathPenalty.
The US Defense Department said Thursday that it plans to livestream the firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, who was convicted in connection with the 2009 shooting at Fort Hood.
Hasan is scheduled to be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3. He was convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others.
President Donald Trump said Saturday that he would ultimately decide whether the execution would be livestreamed.
Leo did not directly mention the planned execution or the botched lethal injection in Tennessee, which has renewed debate over capital punishment in the United States.
The pope’s statement came on the World Day Against the Death Penalty, when official papal social media accounts commonly publish messages recognizing such observances.
However, it appeared only hours after Leo’s top deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, explicitly described the planned US public execution as “unacceptable.”
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Pope Francis declared capital punishment ‘inadmissible’
In 2018, Pope Francis amended official Catholic teaching to state that capital punishment is “inadmissible” in all circumstances.
Before that change, the Catechism of the Catholic Church said the church did not rule out capital punishment “if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.”
Earlier popes had supported that position, although St. John Paul II increasingly called for an end to the practice and emphasized that guilty people, like the innocent, retain their dignity.
Like Francis before him, Leo has made prison visits a central feature of his papal travels. His message to inmates has focused on hope, their inherent dignity, God’s love and the possibility of redemption.
“If any of you fear being abandoned by everyone, know that God will never abandon you, and that the church will stand by your side,” Leo told prisoners at the notorious Bata prison in Equatorial Guinea during a visit in April.
Leo is also scheduled to visit a prison in Buenos Aires during his upcoming tour of Latin America.
Addressing the US plans specifically, Parolin called the proposed livestreamed execution “truly incomprehensible” and said it was “unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.”
“The Church’s position is one of total opposition to the death penalty; it is incompatible with human dignity and serves as no deterrent…,” Parolin said in comments carried by Vatican News. “It is truly incomprehensible that anyone would want to use this system today — I don’t know for what purpose. It is certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle; even if the person is guilty, of course, there are other methods.”
Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the US bishops conference, said he was “shocked” and deeply saddened by the Pentagon’s plans.
“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,” he said in a statement Friday. “The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.”
