Military Archbishop Urges Catholic Soldiers to Opt Out of Hasan Execution

The Catholic archbishop who oversees spiritual care for U.S. military personnel has condemned the Pentagon's plan to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, and said any Catholic assigned to the squad should ask to be excused. Archbishop Timothy Broglio issued the statement Monday, according to The Guardian and CBS News.

Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, is scheduled to be executed Dec. 3. The plan has drawn objections from members of both parties, CBS News reported, so the archbishop's intervention adds a religious voice to a growing political debate.

What Broglio said

Broglio wrote that he disapproved of what had been proposed for Hasan's execution. He called Hasan's crime heinous but questioned whether exposing the public to the execution served any purpose, The Guardian reported. He cited the Catholic Church's opposition to the death penalty and described service on the firing squad as contrary to church teaching.

He also warned of "moral injury" to service members ordered to carry out the sentence, according to CBS News. He asked whether the country wants to imitate terrorists by making a public spectacle of killing its adversaries.

The archbishop said the U.S. military generally has a good reputation abroad. He questioned whether broadcasting to the world the image of an execution of a man in a wheelchair was worth putting the military in the same category as terrorists. Broglio also recalled presiding at the funeral of Michael Grant Cahill, the only civilian killed in the attack, The Guardian reported.

How the plan came about

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced last week that the execution would be public. The Pentagon later confirmed it would be livestreamed, according to The Guardian. Hegseth said the military wants it public because people need to understand there are serious consequences for such acts, CBS News reported. The Pentagon did not immediately respond to CBS News' request for comment on the archbishop's statement.

A court-martial convicted Hasan in 2013 and sentenced him to death for killing 13 people and wounding more than 30 at Fort Hood, Texas. CBS News reported that he acknowledged at trial that he carried out the 2009 shooting. The Guardian also dates the attack to 2009.

Criticism from lawmakers and the pope

CBS News reported that Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said she would expect such a step from terrorists and dictators, not from America. Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota said the "death penalty is not entertainment."

House Speaker Mike Johnson told CBS News that some House Republicans have concerns, which he plans to raise with the White House. He said a video of the execution could become a recruiting tool for future terrorists, that he would not watch it, and that there is still time to discuss the plan. Vice President JD Vance, who is Catholic, said last week that he would not watch if it is livestreamed.

Pope Leo XIV said in a post that the death penalty is "inadmissible" because it attacks the dignity of the person, CBS News reported. The post coincided with the World Day Against the Death Penalty. The pope did not explicitly mention Hasan's case or the livestream.

Why it matters: a rare execution and a rare public one

According to CBS News, Hasan's case could be the first execution of an American by the U.S. military since 1961 and the first use of a firing squad by the military since 1945. Public executions are virtually unheard of in modern U.S. history. CBS News said the last one in the country appeared to be 90 years ago, when Rainey Bethea was hanged in Kentucky before a crowd of about 20,000.

For service members, the archbishop's statement raises the question of whether Catholics assigned to the firing squad will seek to be excused. The sources do not say how the military would handle such requests. For the public, a livestream would make the execution viewable to anyone.

What happens next

The execution is set for Dec. 3. Johnson said he plans to take Republican concerns to the White House. The Pentagon has not yet responded to the archbishop's statement.

Sources: The Guardian, CBS News