Pope Leo: What We Know

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Pope Leo XIV wrote on Oct. 10, World Day Against the Death Penalty, that capital punishment is "inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person." It came days after a Pentagon official said the Army's Dec. 3 firing-squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan, the convicted Fort Hood shooter, will be livestreamed. Here is what each side has said, what the record shows, and what is still open.

What's confirmed

1. Nov. 5, 200913 people were killed and more than 30 wounded in a shooting at Fort Hood, Texas. (AP, CBS News, Al Jazeera)
2. 2013A military jury convicted Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan and sentenced him to death. (Army.mil, NBC News)
3. Oct. 2-6, 2026The president approved the sentence; the acting Army secretary signed an execution order for Dec. 3, 2026 at Fort Hood, by firing squad. It would be the first U.S. military execution since 1961. (Task & Purpose, Military Times, CBS News)
4. Oct. 7-8, 2026Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, "We'll make sure that people are able to watch it, that it's public, because people need to understand that there's serious consequences for these types of things." A Pentagon official said it will be livestreamed, without giving details. (The National News Desk, Al Jazeera, CBS News)
5. Oct. 9, 2026Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, wrote that "in no way can Hasan's actions be condoned" but called the decision "a barbaric promotion of a culture of death and must be reconsidered." (Colorado Politics, CBS News)
6. Oct. 9, 2026Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican's secretary of state, told Vatican News the plan was unacceptable. (Al Jazeera, CBS News)
7. Oct. 9, 2026Vice President JD Vance said he hopes people don't forget that Hasan "brutally murdered a lot of innocent people," and that if it is livestreamed he won't be watching it. (PBS NewsHour, FOX 13)
8. Oct. 10, 2026The pope's post. Pope Francis changed the Catechism in 2018 to call the death penalty inadmissible in all cases, so the teaching itself is not new. (Al Jazeera, CBS News)

What we don't know

• Whether the livestream will actually happen, who would be able to watch, and how. The Pentagon has released no details, and the vice president has cast doubt on it.
• Whether Hasan will file a habeas petition in federal court. None has been reported.
• Whether any court will be asked to step in.

What happens next

The execution is scheduled for Dec. 3, 2026. We will update this page when a court rules, the Pentagon releases details, or the date passes.

Chapters

1. 0:00Pope Leo and the Fort Hood execution
2. 0:23Nidal Hasan's Fort Hood case
3. 0:41Hasan firing squad livestream plan
4. 1:11What Pope Leo and the Vatican said
5. 2:18Hasan execution Dec. 3: where it stands

Sources

1. Al Jazeera, Oct. 10, 2026aljazeera.com/news/2026/10/10/pope-says-death-penalty-inadmissible-as-us-plans-to-livestream-execution
2. Colorado Politics, Oct. 9, 2026coloradopolitics.com/2026/10/09/catholic-bishops-condemn-administrations-plan-to-livestream-execution/
3. FOX 13, Oct. 9, 2026fox13news.com/news/vance-livestreaming-hasan-execution
4. PBS NewsHourpbs.org/newshour/politics/watch-vance-says-hes-not-going-to-be-watching-livestream-of-fort-hood-shooters-execution
5. Task & Purpose, Oct. 7, 2026taskandpurpose.com/news/nidal-hasan-execution/
6. The National News Desk (Sinclair)abcnews4.com/news/nation-world/pete-hegseth-says-first-firing-squad-execution-in-decades-will-be-made-public-nidal-malik-hasan-hanging-fort-hood-mass-shooting-violent-pvt-john-a-bennett-pct-eddie-slovik-world-war-ii-murder-war-afghanistan-war-president-trump-clemency

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Part of What We Know: open cases, confirmed facts only · YouTube playlist