U.S. military archbishop: Catholic soldiers shouldn't take part in firing squad of Fort Hood shooter
- Archbishop Broglio, military's top Catholic cleric, tells Catholic soldiers to sit out the firing squad for Fort Hood shooter Nidal Hasan—calls execution 'contrary to Church teaching' and equates it with abortion.
- Hasan, paralyzed from the waist down by cop bullets in 2009, is set to become the first military firing squad guest since Eddie Slovik's 1945 desertion date with destiny.
- Prez Trump hasn't signed off on the livestream, but Veep J.D. Vance (a Catholic, for crying out loud) says he'll pass on watching—holy water and popcorn don't mix, apparently.
- Archbishop gripes that broadcasting a wheelchair-bound killer's goodbye makes the military look like 'terrorists'—because nothing says moral high ground like a botched lethal injection PR stunt.
- A 2009 attack left 13 dead, 32 wounded—but the Church's new crusade is protecting the shooter's 'dignity' from a public spectacle, not the victims' families from a repeat trauma.
Brief Summary
The military's top Catholic prelate, Archbishop Timothy Broglio, is throwing a holy wrench into the Pentagon's plans to execute Nidal Hasan by firing squad on Dec. 3. He's not just sad about the 13 deaths from 2009—he's furious that Catholic soldiers might have to pull the trigger, declaring the gig 'contrary to the teachings of the Church' and demanding they request a religious exemption. In a statement dripping with sanctimony, Broglio compared the execution to abortion, slammed the proposed livestream, and warned that broadcasting a paralyzed man's wheelchair-bound farewell would tarnish the military's rep by 'throwing them in the same boat with terrorists.' The archbishop even presided over a victim's funeral back in 2009, so he's got the emotional high ground—but that doesn't stop him from lecturing the Pentagon about 'moral injury' to the firing squad while families still bury their dead. With Trump not yet green-lighting the livestream and Vance refusing to watch, the whole affair is shaping up as a theological cage match between 'Thou Shalt Not Kill' and 'Justice For 13 Bodies.'
Why This Matters
You might think this is just a church squabble over one dead terrorist—but wake up, this hits your wallet and your safety. If Catholic soldiers get to dodge the firing squad on conscience grounds, expect a wave of 'moral injury' excuse-itis across every military base, from drone operators to MPs—next thing you know, nobody's left to do the dirty work, and the chain of command becomes a therapy circle. The livestream debate is the real tell: if the state decides to broadcast a terrorist's last breath, it's not justice—it's a snuff film funded by your tax dollars, and the archbishop's right that it lowers America to the level of the ISIS recruiting videos we claim to despise. On the flip side, if Broglio wins, you've got a system where the most heinous mass murderer gets a gentler exit than a stray dog at the pound—because 'dignity' suddenly matters when the shooter's in a wheelchair, not when he's spraying bullets into unarmed soldiers. Either way, you're stuck with the fallout: a military that can't execute a condemned man without a Vatican-style morality debate, and a public that's either queasy or furious at the spectacle. So pick your poison—holier-than-thou paralysis or a blood-spattered live stream—because the next time a Hasan comes along, this precedent decides whether justice is swift or just a sermon.