Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the prelate who oversees Catholic pastoral services for the U.S. military, issued a statement Monday instructing Catholics in the armed forces not to participate in the firing squad slated to execute Fort Hood mass murderer Nidal Hasan, according to the Associated Press and Reuters. Broglio said participation would violate Church teaching and directed any Catholic assigned to the squad to seek exemption.
"I oblige any Catholics assigned to the firing squad to request to be excused from this action contrary to the teaching of the Church," Broglio said, as reported by Al Jazeera. The archbishop also questioned the reasoning behind the timing and staging of the execution, according to his statement.
The execution itself is set for December 3 and was announced last week by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said the proceedings would be made viewable to the public. "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there are serious consequences for these types of things," Hegseth told Real America's Voice. Hegseth has also said he wants the execution carried out at the same time and location as the 2009 shooting spree, and described using military members to carry out the death penalty.
Hasan, a former Army major, killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 others at Fort Hood, Texas, in 2009. He was shot by police during the attack and is now 56 years old and wheelchair-bound. He was sentenced to death by a military court.
Broglio's directive now forces a direct collision between military orders and religious authority for any Catholic service member tapped to stand on that line in December. It's an order from a chaplain corps leader that, if followed, removes personnel from a lawful military execution at the direction of the Church.
Cardinal Blase Cupich, the archbishop of Chicago, also condemned the plan to livestream the execution in a social media post Monday, questioning the example it could set for children, according to Al Jazeera.
Critics of the livestream include lawmakers and rights groups who argue a publicly broadcast killing is unethical and could be used as anti-U.S. propaganda by hostile armed groups, Al Jazeera reported. Some fear the broadcast could turn Hasan into a symbol. Writing on X, Reuters' own social media account drew a blunt reply from users noting that the job of a soldier is to kill the enemy, and that Catholic archbishops raised no such objection during either World War.
The last U.S. military execution by firing squad was that of Private Eddie Slovik in 1945, put to death for desertion during World War II. In the eight decades since, the military has handled death sentences by other means and largely out of public view. Hegseth's decision to open this one to cameras, at the site and hour of the massacre itself, is without modern precedent.
Al Jazeera reported that Broglio's statement also questioned the reasoning behind putting service members in the position of executing a man who was, at the time of his crimes, one of their own — a fellow soldier and officer. That detail has been a quiet sticking point for some in the military community since the plan was announced.
What is not yet known: how the Pentagon will respond if Catholic troops do request excusal, whether replacements have been designated, and whether Broglio's directive carries any practical weight if the chain of command declines to honor it. The Department of Defense has not issued a public response to the archbishop's statement as of Monday.
What is known is that 13 families have waited 17 years for December 3.
Our Take
Here's what the archbishop's letter doesn't grapple with: Hasan didn't shoot 13 strangers. He was an Army officer. He shouted a religious slogan as he opened fire on soldiers preparing to deploy. The men and women he killed were in uniform. If any man in this country has earned a firing squad, it's him — and if any institution has earned the right to carry it out, it's the one whose ranks he thinned.
Broglio's argument is that a Catholic cannot in good conscience serve on the squad. Fine. No one should be dragged to that line against their faith. But his office, let's be honest, exists to serve the spiritual needs of the military — not to veto the lawful orders a military court handed down and a Defense Secretary green-lit. There's a reason the Church has ministered to soldiers through every war this country has ever fought while officers carried out sentences the Church disapproved of. The arrangement worked because chaplains tended souls and commanders tended discipline, and neither tried to run the other's shop.
The Catholic Church has taught against capital punishment for decades. The Church also teaches that its members may serve in armed forces and, by extension, in the roles those forces assign. Those two teachings have coexisted through the executions of deserters, spies and mass murderers. This one is no different, except for the cameras Hegseth says will be rolling.
And on those cameras: the Left howls that broadcasting the execution will make a martyr of Hasan. No, it won't. Martyrdom requires the world to see a cause worth dying for. What the public will see on December 3 is a wheelchair, a name, and the bill for 13 bodies. Transparency is not propaganda. Hiding state executions in the dark for 80 years is how you get a citizenry that no longer believes the state does hard things justly.
The real test here isn't Broglio versus Hegseth. It's whether the Pentagon lets a religious directive dictate who stands on a lawful execution detail — or thanks the archbishop for his counsel and proceeds. The families of Fort Hood are owed an answer. Watch what the Department of Defense does next, not what it says.
