Catholic soldiers assigned to the Army’s planned firing-squad execution of convicted Fort Hood mass shooter Nidal Malik Hasan should seek permission to step aside, Archbishop Timothy Broglio said Monday. Broglio, who oversees Catholic pastoral care for the U.S. military, also criticized the Pentagon’s proposal to livestream the execution.
Broglio objected to several aspects of the unprecedented plan to execute Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist convicted of killing 13 people and injuring 32 others during a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base.
Hasan, now 56, uses a wheelchair after responding officers shot him during the attack.
The U.S. Army said Hasan is scheduled to be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3 at 1 p.m. CST. If carried out, it would be the first U.S. military firing-squad execution since 1945 and the first military execution by any method since 1961.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth has said Hasan should be executed at the same time, on the same day of the week and at the same location as the 2009 shooting. He has argued that making the execution public could serve as a deterrent.
Broglio recalled presiding over the funeral of Michael Grant Cahill, the only civilian killed in the attack, and expressed continued sorrow over the deaths caused by the shooting.
At the same time, the archbishop questioned whether the U.S. government intended to “imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries.”
Hasan’s crime “was heinous, but does exposing the public to his execution serve any purpose?” Broglio asked in a statement.
“I oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church,” he continued.
Army regulations allow service members to seek religious exemptions or other accommodations.
The military has not made clear how it plans to choose the soldiers who would serve on the firing squad.
“The U.S. military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world,” Broglio said. “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 wheelchair to the whole world?”
No U.S. government execution has ever been broadcast publicly. The proposal to livestream Hasan’s execution is therefore unprecedented and has prompted criticism from political and religious leaders.
Broglio is among several Catholic leaders who have condemned the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the military execution.
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Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the U.S. bishops conference, said he was “shocked” and filled with “great sorrow” over the proposal, urging the government to reconsider.
“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 on 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.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, described the proposed broadcast as “truly incomprehensible” and warned that 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 told reporters on Friday.
According to an English translation published by Vatican News, Parolin said, “It is truly incomprehensible that anyone would want to use this method in this day and age.
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 added that the death penalty “is incompatible with human dignity and does not serve as a deterrent.”
Pope Leo XIV reiterated the Catholic Church’s opposition to the death penalty as “inadmissible” in a social media post on Saturday marking World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Citing Catholic doctrine revised under his predecessor, Pope Francis, Leo emphasized that the death penalty violates human dignity.
“The death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person. The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment: 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,” Leo, the first American pope, wrote on X without specifically mentioning the Pentagon’s execution plan for Hasan.
President Donald Trump said Saturday he had not yet decided whether to allow the livestream plan to move forward, although he has reportedly expressed doubts in private about broadcasting the execution.
Vice President JD Vance, who is a Catholic, expressed skepticism about whether the Pentagon would proceed with a public execution. He said he would not watch the livestream if it were carried out.
Several lawmakers, including Republicans, have spoken out against plans to broadcast the execution.
“Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said on Thursday. “It should not be happening in America.”
Reuters contributed to this report.
