US Military Services archbishop obliges any Catholics in Hasan execution firing squad to request to be excused from task

Any Catholics on the firing squad set to carry out the execution of Nidal Malik Hasan Dec. 3 are obliged to request to be excused from the action, according to an Oct. 12 statement issued by Archbishop Timothy Broglio of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA. 

According to the archbishop, requesting to be excused from the firing squad can be likened to requesting to not participate in helping someone obtain an abortion. 

Archbishop Broglio said, “As I would in the case of a procured abortion, I oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church.”

A number of Catholic leaders have spoken out against the decision to livestream the execution and the death penalty broadly in recent days. Pope Leo XIV posted on X Oct. 10, World Day Against the Death Penalty, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person.” He said that justice and the common good can be upheld without recourse to the death penalty as effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens and offer guilty persons opportunity for redemption. 

Pope Leo received Archbishop Broglio in an audience Oct. 12, according to the Vatican Press Office. No further information on the meeting was given, as is standard.

Archbishop Broglio's statement comes days after the Pentagon announced it would livestream Hasan’s execution by firing squad Dec. 3. Archbishop Broglio has served as the archbishop for the Military Services since 2008 and also served as president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) from 2022 to 2025. Archbishop Paul Coakley, who succeeded him as USCCB president, issued a statement Oct. 9 condemning the Pentagon’s plan to livestream the execution, saying a public execution “will only further undermine the moral fabric of our nation and be a blight on the conscience of its people.” 

Hasan is convicted of killing 14 people and wounding 32 others in a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. The Catholic bishops of Texas issued a statement condemning the planned execution and its livestream, while decrying the tragedy of the Fort Hood massacre. 

“The tragedy at Fort Hood has traumatized the loved ones of those killed, the survivors, and the entire military community,” said Bishop Daniel Garcia of Austin, the diocese within which Fort Hood is located. “Carrying out this execution at Fort Hood, especially as a public broadcast, will only exacerbate that trauma. We ask the faithful to pray for the service members called upon to participate in the execution, and those on the military base, including children, who may witness or otherwise be exposed to the execution.”

Archbishop Broglio emphasized his support for the Texas bishops’ statement, adding, “it is my duty to express my disapproval of what is proposed regarding the execution of the terrorist Hasan in the Archdiocese entrusted to my spiritual care to be done by those for whose salvation I have been constituted as the Archbishop for the Military Services, USA.”

He outlined three main points in his statement, the first of which offered heartfelt sympathy to the loved ones of victims of the Fort Hood shooting. Describing the massacre as “an attack that disregarded the dignity of the human person,” Archbishop Broglio added, “I had the sad duty of presiding and preaching at the funeral of Michael Grant Cahill, the only civilian killed in that attack.”

Secondly, he reiterated the Catholic Church’s teaching opposing capital punishment. The Catechism of the Catholic Church was clear on the teaching, and Pope Francis made it even clearer, Archbishop Broglio said. 

“The dignity of the human person is again at stake,” he said. 

Lastly, he asked, “Do we really want to imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries? The crime committed by Nidal Malik Hasan was heinous, but does exposing the public to his execution serve any purpose?

“Has the potential moral injury, which the members of the firing squad might experience, been considered? Will the exposure of a live-stream to the young and impressionable during the 250th anniversary year of our independence be able to be repaired?”

“The US military generally enjoys a good reputation in the world,” he said. “Is 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? Does this decision reflect the dignity of the human person?”

He called upon all persons of goodwill to ask for the decision to be reconsidered, and to, “at the very least, do what is possible to keep the exposure to the livestreaming of the proposed execution from the vision of the young and impressionable.”