{"id":880376,"date":"2026-10-13T02:56:18","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T02:56:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/880376\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T02:56:18","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T02:56:18","slug":"us-archbishop-says-catholics-in-army-should-not-participate-in-firing-squad-death-penalty-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/880376\/","title":{"rendered":"US archbishop says Catholics in army should not participate in firing squad | Death Penalty News"},"content":{"rendered":"

United States Archbishop Timothy Broglio has urged Catholics who are members of the country\u2019s armed forces not to take part in a planned public execution by firing squad,<\/a> saying that it violates the teachings of the church.<\/p>\n

Broglio released a strongly worded statement on Monday raising a series of concerns about the US military\u2019s plan to livestream the execution<\/a> of Nidal Hasan, a former army major who killed 13 people during a shooting attack at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church,\u201d Broglio said.<\/p>\n

He also asked whether the US wants to \u201cimitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries\u201d.<\/p>\n

The plan to livestream the execution on December 3 was announced last week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who characterised the spectacle as deterrence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it\u2019s public, because people need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things,\u201d Hegseth told the right-wing media outlet Real America\u2019s Voice.<\/p>\n

But the proposal has sparked backlash from lawmakers<\/a>, rights groups and critics who warn that a publicly broadcast killing is not only unethical but could also be used as anti-US propaganda.<\/p>\n

Hasan, now aged 56, was shot by the police during the 2009 Fort Hood attack and is now wheelchair-bound. Critics fear livestreaming Hasan\u2019s death could turn him into a symbol for armed groups that may be hostile to the US.<\/p>\n

Cardinal Blase J Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, also condemned the plan to livestream the execution in a social media post on Monday, questioning the example it could set for children.<\/p>\n

\u201cCapital punishment is unacceptable in any case,\u201d he said. \u201cThe planned broadcast of the taking of a life by firing squad is nothing short of performative barbarism. Do we really want our children, who will inevitably view it, exposed to the pornography of a state-sponsored slaying?\u201d<\/p>\n

Hegseth has said he wants<\/a> the execution to take place at the same time and location as the 2009 shooting spree, and described using military members to carry out the death penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt hadn\u2019t been since World War II since we\u2019ve done that,\u201d Hegseth said of the firing squad. \u201cWell, I kind of like the mentality we had in World War II, which was win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The last US military execution by firing squad was of Eddie Slovik, who was accused of desertion in 1945. He was the only US soldier to have such a sentence carried out for abandoning his post.<\/p>\n

In Monday\u2019s statement, Broglio also questioned the reasoning behind putting service members on camera to carry out Hasan\u2019s death. He hinted that it could harm the US military\u2019s image abroad.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe US military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world,\u201d Broglio wrote. \u201cIs 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 wheel chair to the whole world?\u201d<\/p>\n

Without mentioning Hasan\u2019s case specifically, Pope Leo<\/a> also released a statement on Saturday condemning the death penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,\u201d he said in a social media post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump<\/a>, who oversaw an unprecedented spike in federal executions during his first term in office, has approved Hasan\u2019s execution.<\/p>\n

Still, on Saturday, he indicated that he has not decided whether to proceed with a livestream.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are two thoughts: Don\u2019t show it and show it. Because, you know, by showing it, maybe other people won\u2019t be doing what he did,\u201d Trump told reporters. \u201cI\u2019ll make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since the start of his second term as president, Trump has pushed for the increased use of the federal death penalty. In April, he also approved additional methods to carry out the death penalty, including the firing squad.<\/p>\n

In the past, Trump has also floated the death penalty as a punishment for crimes ranging from drug dealing to sedition, a term he has invoked against political rivals<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"United States Archbishop Timothy Broglio has urged Catholics who are members of the country\u2019s armed forces not to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":880377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,57341,12,2420,4379,3,111,2229,21,19,22,20,25,1209,24],"class_list":["post-880376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-states","tag-america","tag-death-penalty","tag-donald-trump","tag-government","tag-military","tag-news","tag-politics","tag-religion","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-us-canada","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=880376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/880376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/880377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=880376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=880376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=880376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}