Pope Leo XIV has described the death penalty as inadmissible, at a time when his home country, the United States, has said it will livestream a firing squad execution. The pontiff made the remarks on Saturday, marking World Day Against the Death Penalty, in a post on X.
Pope restates Church position in post on X
In the post, the pope restated the Catholic Church’s teaching that capital punishment attacks the dignity and inviolability of the person. He said the common good and the demands of justice could be upheld without it. Modern detention systems, he added, can protect citizens while still leaving guilty people a chance at redemption.
The pope did not mention the planned execution directly. He also did not refer to the botched attempt on Christa Pike in Tennessee last month, when she survived two doses of lethal injection. However, the post came hours after his senior deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, told Vatican media that the livestream plan was unacceptable.
Church teaching on capital punishment has shifted over time
Pope Francis was the first to change official teaching in 2018, declaring capital punishment inadmissible in all circumstances. Before that, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official compendium of church doctrine, had left room for the death penalty where it was the only feasible way to stop an unjust aggressor from killing people.
Livestream plan draws criticism across US political divide
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, set for December 3, would be livestreamed. A Pentagon official confirmed the plans the same day. Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base.
The proposal has drawn anger from both parties. Republican representative Austin Scott said he supported executing Hasan but argued that livestreaming executions is something jihadists do, adding that America is better than that. Democratic Senator Mark Kelly, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said Hasan should face justice but compared public executions to practices in Iran and the Taliban, questioning whether that was the company the country wanted to keep.
On Friday, Vice President JD Vance, a practising Catholic, cast doubt on whether the livestream would go ahead. He told reporters that he would not be watching it if it did.
