"The death penalty is inadmissible because it attacks the inviolability and dignity of the person." This is what the Pope wrote on X, adding the hashtag #NoDeathPenalty to his message on the World Day Against the Death Penalty. "The common good can be protected and the requirements of justice can be safeguarded without resorting to capital punishment: effective detention systems have been developed that protect citizens but, at the same time, do not completely deprive guilty persons of the possibility of redemption."
The comments come after the announcement of the execution by firing squad of Nidal Hasan, the former Army major who killed 13 people and wounded 32 others in a violent shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. The shooting will be livestreamed. "A violation of the absolute prohibition of torture," thundered the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, echoing the outrage over the Pentagon chief's shocking announcement. "People must understand that there are serious consequences for this type of action," argued Pete Hegseth, referring to the execution already scheduled for December 3rd, at the very site of the Fort Hood attack, at a time (1:00 PM) that coincides with the start of the shooting.
"He deserves the death penalty by firing squad," reiterated President Donald Trump, who this week authorized the first military firing squad deployed since the end of World War II. "I don't know if it will actually happen. This man carried out the worst terrorist attack on American soil since 9/11. If it ends up being livestreamed, I won't watch it," commented US Vice President J.D. Vance, responding in Ohio to a question about how his Christian faith can be reconciled with the controversial affair. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops was harsh. "Our God is the God of life: in no way can Hassan's actions be justified, but this decision is a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered," thundered Archbishop Paul Stagg Coakley. "The spectacularization of death is unacceptable, even if the person is obviously guilty, but there are other systems, it is incomprehensible," reiterated Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, for whom "the Church's thinking is totally opposed to the death penalty."
