Speaking from Vatican on Saturday, the World Day Against the Death Penalty, Pope Leo XIV declared capital punishment “inadmissible”, calling it “an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”.
The statement by Leo, an American who leads the Catholic Church, came as the US Defense Department prepares for the firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan at Fort Hood on December 3. The department said on Thursday that the execution would be livestreamed.
Hasan was convicted over a 2009 shooting at the Fort Hood military base in which 13 people were killed and 32 others wounded.
On Friday, senior Church officials condemned the plan to broadcast the execution. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, called the planned public execution “unacceptable”.
President Donald Trump said on Saturday that he would ultimately decide whether the execution would be livestreamed.
In a post on X under his official handle, @Pontifex, Leo said: “The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment.”
The Church’s position was set out formally by Pope Francis in 2018, when he amended its official teaching to declare capital punishment “inadmissible” in all circumstances.
The previous Catechism of the Catholic Church had allowed recourse to capital punishment “if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor”.
Leo has made prison visits a central part of his papal travel. During a visit to the Bata prison in Equatorial Guinea in April, he told inmates: “If any of you fear being abandoned by everyone, know that God will never abandon you, and that the church will stand by your side”.
The planned execution also follows an attempt last month in Tennessee in which Christa Pike survived two doses of lethal injection.
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