Pope Declares Opposition To Death Penalty Shortly After U.S. Announced It Would Livestream An Execution

Debates about the morality of the death penalty, particularly in the U.S., have intensified recently because of both the botched execution attempt of Christa Pike and the U.S. government’s plan to execute former U.S. Army Major Nidal Hasan, convicted of murdering over a dozen U.S. soldiers in 2009, and livestream it.

The highest ranking official of the Catholic Church, the U.S.-born Pope Leo XIV, is the latest to weigh in on the conversation.

“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.” the Supreme Pontiff wrote on X on Saturday.

Although the administration of President Donald Trump is not named in the statement, Pope Leo XIV’s reiteration of his stance on the issue is likely a consequence of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announcing on Thursday that the American public would be able to watch the execution of Hasan by firing squad, scheduled for December, live.

The pope had previously expressed opposition to the death penalty in April, on the same day that the Trump administration authorized death by firing squad as a federally permitted method of execution.

Hasan was a U.S. army psychiatrist who admitted murdering 13 U.S. soldiers at Fort Hood in 2009 in a self-described effort to protect fellow Muslims in Afghanistan from U.S. military operations.

Hasan’s planned execution seems to form part of a larger strategy by the Trump administration to expand and accelerate the use of capital punishment against those on death row; Trump pledged in a rally in Alabama on October 2nd that his government would “pass the death penalty for large-scale drug dealers, human traffickers, and anyone who kills a police officer.”

This promise was made in the same week that Christa Pike, a woman convicted of murder, survived an execution attempt by two lethal injections. It is unknown when, or if, Pike, who is said to be walking and talking after receiving life-saving care, will be executed.

Historically, the Catholic Church and most popes have supported the right of states to execute criminals in certain severe cases. However, in August 2018 Pope Leo XIV’s predecessor Pope Francis revised Paragraph 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church – the section which pertains to the death penalty – to declare the death penalty “inadmissible”.

Some of the highest-ranking members of the Trump administration, including Vice President JD Vance, identify as Catholic. Vance has cast doubt on whether the publicly broadcast execution of Hasan will go ahead, and said that he would not watch it.

“I’ve seen these announcements. I don’t know that that’s actually going to happen … I try to remind people that … this is a guy who committed, in my view, the worst terrorist attack on American soil outside of 9/11 … that said, if it’s ultimately livestreamed, I’m not going to be watching it,” Vance said on Friday.