Pope Leo condemns dying penalty, Vance vows to not watch Hasan’s execution reside
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Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth’s announcement of the execution by firing squad of Fort Hood gunman Nidal Malik Hasan continues to gas controversy. Former US Army Major Hasan, convicted of killing 13 individuals and wounding one other 32, is anticipated to be put to dying in a live-streamed execution, most certainly on 3 December.
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Pope Leo XIV has additionally intervened within the debate, with out commenting immediately on the case. Marking the World Day Against the Death Penalty on 10 October, he declared on Saturday that capital punishment is “inadmissible”.
In a submit on X, the US-born Pope cited the revised Catholic educating on capital punishment launched by Pope Francis, in accordance with which the dying penalty assaults the inherent dignity of a human being.
“The widespread good could be safeguarded and the calls for of justice could be met with out recourse to capital punishment,” reads the submit printed on Leo’s account, @Pontifex. “Effective techniques of detention have been developed that shield residents and on the identical time don’t fully deprive those that are responsible of the potential of redemption.” The submit ends with the hashtag #nopenadimorte.
The Pope didn’t check with both the deliberate execution or the botched deadly injection in Tennessee that not too long ago reignited the talk over the dying penalty within the United States. However, his submit got here simply hours after his prime deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, had explicitly said that the deliberate public execution within the United States was “unacceptable” and that it was “unacceptable to show dying right into a spectacle”.
In 2018, Pope Francis amended official Catholic educating to declare the dying penalty “inadmissible” in all circumstances.
Previously, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the official compendium of Church educating, said that it didn’t rule out recourse to capital punishment “if this have been the one doable approach to defend successfully human lives towards an unjust aggressor”.
The head of the US bishops’ convention, Archbishop Paul Coakley, expressed “shock” and “nice sorrow” on the Pentagon’s plans. “In no manner can Hasan’s actions be condoned, however this choice is a barbaric promotion of a tradition of dying and should be reconsidered,” he mentioned in an announcement on Friday. “The public execution even of those that have finished grave hurt will solely additional undermine the ethical material of our nation and characterize a stain on the conscience of its individuals,” he added.
Vance is not going to watch the execution whether it is broadcast
Although he has not opposed Hasan’s execution, US Vice-President JD Vance has mentioned he is not going to watch the reside broadcast and has even questioned whether or not the Pentagon’s plan for a public execution will truly go forward.
According to Vance, the deliberate methodology of execution is distracting consideration from the seriousness of Hasan’s crimes. “This is a person who carried out, for my part, the worst terrorist assault on American soil since 11 September,” the US vice-president mentioned, including: “The individuals he was purported to take care of, the Army troopers he was meant to deal with for psychological sickness and different issues, he struck at their second of most vulnerability and mowed these individuals down proper the place they lived.”
“Whatever controversy there’s over the strategy of execution, I hope individuals don’t forget that this can be a man who brutally murdered many harmless individuals,” he continued.
President Trump is a staunch supporter of the dying penalty. In the primary 9 months of 2026, 30 executions have been carried out within the United States. The Pentagon mentioned on Monday that the president had permitted the execution of Major Hasan.
