Archbishop Timothy Broglio, the archbishop for the US military who oversees pastoral care for Catholic service members, said Catholic troops should refuse to serve on the firing squad for Nidal Hasan’s planned livestreamed execution. He called it contrary to Church teaching and asked, “Do we really want to imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries?”
This is why it keeps getting worse. When the people responsible for the military treat holding a convicted terrorist accountable like a political tussle, it gives the enemy guts. They see the hesitation and keep coming. Accountability isn’t optional theater — it’s what stops the next one.
Broglio issued the statement on Monday, October 12, just hours after an audience with Pope Leo XIV, and said he was backing the statement already put out by the bishops of Texas. Fort Hood falls under his archdiocese, and he said it was his duty to speak about an execution to be carried out there by the soldiers in his spiritual care.
He went further than asking for the livestream to be dropped. He said that, just as he would in the case of a procured abortion, he obliges any Catholic assigned to the firing squad to ask to be excused from an action he called contrary to the teaching of the Church. Army regulations do allow soldiers to request a religious exemption — and the Army has not yet said how it will pick the firing squad.
“Do we really want to imitate the terrorists of this world and make a public spectacle of barbarically killing our adversaries?”
Broglio renewed his sympathy for the families of the 13 people Hasan killed at Fort Hood on November 5, 2009, and called the crime heinous. He noted that he presided and preached at the funeral of Michael Grant Cahill, the only civilian killed in the attack. He repeated the Church’s opposition to capital punishment, warned about the moral injury members of a firing squad could carry, and asked what a livestream would do to young viewers — and to the US military’s reputation — if the execution of a man in a wheelchair is broadcast to the whole world.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the livestream plan last week and argued the opposite case: that the execution should be public so people understand there are serious consequences for attacks like Fort Hood. President Donald Trump has approved the firing-squad execution, set for December 3 at Fort Hood, but has said he is still deciding whether the livestream goes ahead. Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, has said he would not watch it if it is broadcast.
If it happens, it would be the US military’s first firing-squad execution since 1945 and its first execution of any kind since 1961. Broglio closed by calling on men and women of good will to ask that the decision be reconsidered.
People who should know better still don’t get it. Soft signals from those in authority embolden those who want to come in and take over. Accountability isn’t a political game. When justice looks negotiable, the enemy gains confidence and keeps pushing.
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