Catholic Military Bishops Weigh In On Pentagon’s Planned Terrorist Execution

WASHINGTON— Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Archdiocese for the Military Services, called Monday for Catholic service members assigned to the firing squad for Fort Hood terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan to request to be excused.

Broglio spoke out in a Monday statement that deplored the Pentagon’s plan to live-stream Hasan’s execution, writing: “I oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church.”

“I could not agree more with Archbishop Broglio on this issue,” Bishop Joseph Coffey, who serves as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese for the Military Services, told The Daily Wire on Monday.

“It’s a terrible idea,” Coffey added. “There’s a good reason why the US Military has not executed a prisoner since 1961. It’s barbaric. I’m hoping and praying that the SecDef and President Trump change their minds and do not go through with this.”

Traditionally, the Catholic Church allowed capital punishment by legitimate civil authorities under specific conditions: the offender needed to be guilty of a grave crime, the guilt must be established through a legitimate judicial process, the punishment must be proportionate to the offense, and the execution must serve the common good rather than revenge.

Modern maximum security prisons, rehabilitation programs, and criminal justice systems have all contributed to a much sterner view of the death penalty by the Catholic Church.

Pope John Paul II, now a saint in the Catholic Church, said that execution should be reserved for cases of absolute necessity, when society could not otherwise be defended. Pope Francis revised the Catechism of the Catholic Church in 2018 to state that the death penalty is inadmissible and violates the dignity of the human person.

Pope Leo XIV reaffirmed that teaching in an October 10 social media post, saying: “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.”

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced on October 8 that the execution would take place on December 3 at Fort Hood, at the same time of day as Hasan’s 2009 terrorist attack, which killed 13 people and wounded 32 others.

“We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it,” Hegseth told Real America’s Voice’s Jack Posobiec in an interview aboard the USS Lincoln. “That it’s public. Because people need to understand that there’s serious consequences for these types of things!”

The War Department declined to comment for this report.

Pope Francis meets with USA Archbishop for the Military Services Monsignor Timothy Broglio during an audience at the Apostolic Palace on April 18, 2024 in Vatican City, Vatican. (Photo by Vatican Media via Vatican Pool/Getty Images)

Broglio strongly condemned Hasan’s attack at Fort Hood, calling the shooter’s violence “an attack that disregarded the dignity of the human person.” He noted that he presided over the funeral of Michael Grant Cahill, the only civilian killed in the shooting.

“Secondly, I repeat the opposition of the Catholic Church to capital punishment,” he stated. “The Catechism was already clear and Pope Francis made it even clearer.  The dignity of the human person is again at stake.”

“Thirdly,” Broglio continued, “do we really want to imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries?  The crime committed by Nidal Malik Hasan was heinous, but does exposing the public to his execution serve any purpose?”

“Has the potential moral injury, which the members of the firing squad might experience, been considered?” he asked. “Will the exposure of a live stream to the young and impressionable during the 250^th anniversary year of our independence be able to be repaired?”

Broglio also questioned how broadcasting the execution would affect the military’s reputation.

“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? Does this decision reflect the dignity of the human person?” he asked.

“I call upon all men and women of good will to ask that this decision be reconsidered and, at the very least, do what is possible to keep the exposure to the live-streaming of the proposed execution from the vision of the young and impressionable,” he added. “As I would in the case of a procured abortion, I oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church.”

On Friday, Vice President JD Vance was asked by a reporter how he viewed the planned public execution as a Catholic. Vance said he would not watch a livestream and questioned whether the broadcast would happen.

“Well, first of all, I see these announcements, I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen,” he told reporters.

“But what I try to remind people is, look, this is a guy who committed, in my view, the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11, the people that he was meant to treat, the Army soldiers that he was meant to treat for mental illness and other problems, he took them at their most vulnerable and gunned down these people where they lived,” Vance said.

The vice president added: “So whatever the controversy is about the method of the execution, I hope that people don’t forget that this is a guy who brutally murdered a lot of innocent people. Now that said, I mean, look, if it’s through live stream, I’m not going to be watching it.”

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