Pope says death penalty ‘inadmissible’ as US plans to livestream execution

Pope Leo XIV describes capital punishment as an ‘attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person’ in post on X.Pope Leo XIV has declared that the death penalty is “inadmissible” while his home country, the United States, announces plans to livestream an execution by firing squad.Marking World Day Against the Death Penalty on Saturday, the pope reiterated the Catholic Church’s teaching on capital punishment, writing on X that it was “inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”.Recommended Stories list of 2 itemslist 1 of 2Christa Pike case underscores prevalence of botched executions in USlist 2 of 2‘Barbaric’: US lawmakers condemn plan to livestream Nidal Hasan’s executionend of list“The common good can be safeguarded and the requirements of justice can be met without recourse to capital punishment,” his post said.“Effective systems of detention have been developed that protect citizens while at the same time do not completely deprive those who are guilty of the possibility of redemption,” added the leader of the Catholic Church.The American Pope’s comments come days after US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said on Thursday that the firing squad execution of Nidal Malik Hasan on December 3 will be livestreamed.Hasan was convicted of killing 13 people and wounding 32 others in a shooting at the Fort Hood military base in 2009.Pope Leo did not specifically refer to the planned execution, or last month’s botched execution attempt on Christa Pike, who survived two doses of the lethal injection in Tennessee.But his post came hours after his top deputy, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, told Vatican News that the plan to livestream Hasan’s execution was “unacceptable”.It was Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis, in 2018 who first amended official Catholic teaching to declare capital punishment “inadmissible” in all circumstances.