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Pope Leo XIV condemned the death penalty as “inadmissible” as the Pentagon faces criticism over plans to livestream an execution later this year.
Leo, the first American pope, shared his opposition to capital punishment Saturday in a social media post marking World Day Against the Death Penalty.
Citing Catholic doctrine revised under his predecessor, Pope Francis, Leo emphasized that the death penalty violates human dignity.
“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,” Leo wrote on X.
“#NoDeathPenalty,” he added in the post.
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In 2018, Francis revised the Catholic Church’s official position on capital punishment, declaring the death penalty “inadmissible” in all circumstances.
“Consequently the church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” the revised Catechism states.
Before the change, Catholic teaching permitted the death penalty in cases where it was deemed the only effective means of protecting human life from a dangerous offender.
Earlier popes had maintained that exception, though Pope John Paul II increasingly advocated ending capital punishment, stressing that those convicted of crimes retain their human dignity.
Although Leo did not specifically mention the U.S. government’s plans in his statement, his post comes after the Pentagon announced on Thursday that it had scheduled a firing squad execution for a man convicted of a mass shooting at a military base.
Nidal Malik Hasan, a former Army psychiatrist, was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base. He is set to be executed at Fort Hood on Dec. 3, which would make him the first person to be executed by firing squad by the U.S. military since 1945.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday he had not yet decided whether to allow the livestream plan, pushed by Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, to move forward.
Vice President JD Vance, who is a Catholic, expressed skepticism about whether the Pentagon would proceed with a public execution. He said he would not watch the livestream if it were carried out.
Several lawmakers, including Republicans, have spoken out against plans to broadcast the execution.
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“Public executions are what oppressive dictatorships like Iran and Afghanistan do,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., said on Thursday. “It should not be happening in America.”
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, criticized the proposed broadcast, calling it “truly incomprehensible” and warning that it was “unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle.”
“The Church’s position is one of total opposition to the death penalty; it is incompatible with human dignity and serves as no deterrent,” Parolin told reporters on Friday. “It is truly incomprehensible that anyone would want to use this system today — I don’t know for what purpose. It is certainly unacceptable to turn death into a spectacle; even if the person is guilty, of course, there are other methods.”
He added that the death penalty “is incompatible with human dignity and does not serve as a deterrent.”
The head of the U.S. bishops conference, Archbishop Paul Coakley, expressed “shock” and “great sorrow” about the public execution plan and urged the U.S. to reconsider.
“In no way can Hasan’s actions be condoned but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered,” he said in a statement on Friday. “The public execution even of one who has done grave harm will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.”
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Leo’s statement also did not mention the botched lethal injection of Christa Gail Pike in Tennessee. Pike survived the attempted execution despite two doses of pentobarbital being administered late last month.
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
