There was nothing in my Google news feed Tuesday about the scheduled execution by firing squad of a mass murderer, or plans to livestream the event. Nothing that I’ve seen, at any rate.
Vatican News, on the other hand, posted this:
“US Archbishop ‘obliges’ Catholics to request to be excused from firing squad”
Christopher Wells, Vatican News (October 13, 2026)“The Archbishop for the Military Services USA, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, has issued a statement obliging ‘any Catholics assigned to the firing squad’ for the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan ‘to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church.’
“Mr. Hasan was condemned to death by a military court for the premeditated murder of 13 people and the attempted premeditated murder of 32 more in a mass shooting at Fort Hood in the US state of Texas.
“Earlier this month, President Donald Trump approved his execution by firing squad. Subsequently, US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth announced the execution would be livestreamed….”
As I was dotting my dotting i’s and crossing my t’s — odd use of apostrophes, but that’s how the Cambridge Dictionary spells it — I learned that the execution is currently scheduled for December 3 of this year.
“…On October 5, 2026, the U.S. Department of Defense, via Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell, issued a statement saying that Hegseth had recommended, and President Trump approved, execution by U.S. Army firing squad. On October 6, the acting Secretary of the Army Adam Telle decided that Hasan’s execution by firing squad will take place at Fort Hood, Texas, on December 3, 2026, at 1 p.m. CT. On October 8, Hegseth stated that Hasan’s execution will be a public execution, and the Pentagon stated that it will be livestreamed. If carried out, it will be the first public execution in the United States in 90 years. According to ABC News, army planners were unaware of the decision to conduct the execution by firing squad and to broadcast it prior to public reporting….”
(Nidal Hasan, Wikipedia (October 13, 2026))
Where I got ‘October 13’ as the execution date, I don’t know. I hadn’t been taking notes as I glanced over recent articles and op-eds.
At this point, I could praise or denounce someone, exhibit shock and horror or virtuous triumph, or pick some other perch from my culture’s political and ideological pigeonholes. But I won’t.
Instead, I’ll sketch out how I see the planned event: as someone who is a Catholic, and takes what I believe seriously.
Human Life Matters
First of all, murder, deliberately killing an innocent person, is a bad idea and we shouldn’t do it. That’s because human life is sacred. It’s a gift from God. That’s every human life, each human life, all human lives. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2258-2317)
Here’s where I could try appealing to a formerly-influential American set, presenting myself as a dedicated defender of America’s noble traditions. Including the death penalty.
Or I could align myself with the folks who have enjoyed influence and authority more recently, by saying that the death penalty is wrong. And, since the Catholic Church says capital punishment is wrong, that it’s run by hypocrites. Actually, the hypocrite claim — and worse — was part of the ‘good old days’ of my youth, too.
Valuing Life, Living in an Imperfect World
We’re told that human life is sacred, so shouldn’t we be full-bore pacifists?
Maybe, if we lived in an ideal world where nobody felt like ganging up on their neighbors.
But that, putting it mildly, is not the world we live in.
St. Thomas Aquinas discussed what we call legitimate defense at great length:
- “Summa Theologicae”
St. Thomas Aquinas; II-II, 64, 7; 70, 1
It’s been upwards of seven and a half centuries since St. Thomas wrote “Summa”. What he said still makes sense, but we’ve been fine-tuning how we summarize his ideas: along with the rest of the deposit of faith we’ve been passing along for the last couple millennia.
That’s why, back in August of 2018, the current Catechism was updated:
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2267, prior to August 2018
“Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against an unjust aggressor.
“If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.
“Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm — without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself — the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity ‘are very rare, if not practically non-existent.’†”
(†Pope St. John Paul II, Encyclical Evangelium vitae 56) [emphasis mine]
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2267, after August 2018
“Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.
“Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.
“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’,‡ and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide.’“
(‡ Francis, Address to Participants in the Meeting organized by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, 11 October 2017: L’Osservatore Romano, 13 October 2017, 5.) [emphasis mine]
Going from “very rare, if not practically non-existent” to “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person” is very likely still upsetting and/or puzzling folks with fixed ideas about both what the Church says and how it should conform to their opinions.
Me? I didn’t see how my country could be so destitute, that we had to kill prisoners.
I still don’t.
It’s Part of Our Job
This mix of religion and politics was still echoing during my youth.
One more item, and I’m done.
Sooner or later, I figure someone’s going to say that the Catholic Church has no business meddling in politics.
And, therefore, that the Church shouldn’t tell us that killing prisoners — or anything else — is wrong.
I’ve been exposed to far too many ham-handed efforts to enlist God as a political promoter to be comfortable with the idea.
I very emphatically do not want the Church mixed up with politics.
But, athough it’s not all we do, part of our job is pointing out what actions are right and which aren’t.
“2245 The Church, because of her commission and competence, is not to be confused in any way with the political community. She is both the sign and the safeguard of the transcendent character of the human person. ‘The Church respects and encourages the political freedom and responsibility of the citizen.'(Gaudium et Spes 76 § 3.)
“2246 It is a part of the Church’s mission ‘to pass moral judgments even in matters related to politics, whenever the fundamental rights of man or the salvation of souls requires it. the means, the only means, she may use are those which are in accord with the Gospel and the welfare of all men according to the diversity of times and circumstances.’ (Gaudium et Spes 76 § 5.)”
(Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2245-2246) [emphasis mine]
I’ve already talked about assorted angles, attitudes, and assumptions regarding life, death, and being both an American and a Catholic:
- “Attack on Lawmakers: Politics, Life, and Making Sense Anyway” (June 21, 2025)
- “Veterans Day and Patriotism” (November 11, 2025)
- “Liberal? Conservative? Republican? Democrat? No: Catholic” (July 27, 2024)
- “Capital Punishment: It Could be Worse” (February 3, 2024)
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Thank you for the research you put into this piece. Very helpful.
🙂 My pleasure. And thank you!
To be honest, I think cancel culture already got me seeing worse executions than actual public executions. Bigots certainly try to leech off protests against cancel culture, too, but I’m pretty sure that as cunning as bigots can be, they would still throw even their fellow bigots under the bus that is cancel culture or worse once they find them not convenient enough, which is also how I imagine the Devil himself operating. And despite and through all that, I find the honoring and humbling divine gift that is forgiveness very different, very good, and most of all, very real.