Military archbishop asks that Catholics be excused from livestreamed execution

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(RNS) — The archbishop responsible for Catholics in the U.S. military asked them not to participate in the livestream execution planned for Dec. 3.

“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,” Archbishop Timothy Broglio wrote in a statement released on Oct. 12.

Asked whether it would excuse Catholics assigned to the firing squad, the Department of Defense declined to comment.

The archdiocese’s statement adds to the list of faith leaders who have condemned Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s plans to livestream the execution of Nidal Hasan, a former army major who killed 13 service members and injured another 32 people in a mass shooting at Fort Hood in 2009. “We’ll make sure that people are able to watch it. That it’s public,” Hegseth announced in an interview   Oct. 8.

Oklahoma City Archbishop Paul Coakley, president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called on the Pentagon to reconsider the decision, which he called “a barbaric promotion of a…