Cardinal Says U.S. Treated Saddam 'Like a Cow'

Yahoo! News / Reuters ^ | 12-16-2003 | Philip Pullella

[sitetest]

[LM's note: This thread is degenerating a bit into Catholic bashing and general flaming, and is in risk of being moved to the smokey backroom. Please stop. I've locked it once, and it has continued. Any more and it is gone. Thanks.]

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - A top Vatican (news - web sites) official said Tuesday he felt pity and compassion for Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) and criticized the U.S. military for showing video footage of him being treated "like a cow."

Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Justice and Peace department and a former papal envoy to the United Nations (news - web sites), told a news conference it would be "illusory" to think the arrest of the former Iraqi president would heal all the damage caused by a war which the Holy See opposed.

"I felt pity to see this man destroyed, (the military) looking at his teeth as if he were a cow. They could have spared us these pictures," he said.

"Seeing him like this, a man in his tragedy, despite all the heavy blame he bears, I had a sense of compassion for him," he said in answer to questions about Saddam's arrest.

Martino was referring to the videotape released by the U.S. military which showed a grubby, bearded and disheveled Saddam receiving a medical examination by a military doctor after his capture in an underground hole Saturday.

Martino was one of the Vatican officials most strongly opposed to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (news - web sites).

"It's true that we should be happy that this (arrest) has come about because it is the watershed that was necessary... we hope that this will not have worse and other serious consequences," Martino said.

"But it is not the total solution to the problems of the Middle East," he said.

Martino said the Vatican hoped the arrest of Saddam "can contribute to promoting peace and the democratization of Iraq."

He added: "But is seems to me to be illusory to hope that this will repair the dramas and the damage of the defeat for humanity that a war always brings about."

The Vatican did not consider the war in Iraq "a just war" because it was not backed by the United Nations and because the Vatican believed more negotiations were necessary to avoid it.

Martino said the Vatican wanted an "appropriate institution" to put Saddam on trial but he did not elaborate.

U.S. forces were keeping the ousted 66-year-old dictator at a secret location for interrogation before he is put on trial in the months ahead. He could face the death penalty.

The news conference was called for Martino to present the World Day of Peace message, in which Pope John Paul (news - web sites) took a swipe at the United States for invading Iraq without the backing of the United Nations.

[gridlock]

A certain amount of unquestioning support of the Maximum Leader is surely part of the institutional culture where this man works. Must be hard to turn it off...

[RedBloodedAmerican]

[thesummerwind]

They should have gotten Hillary to bake him some cookies! Oh no, she doesn't do that.

[ladyjane]

LOL

[sinkspur]

A Goomba's Guide to Life.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

http://www.cosmicdreamer.be/movies/funny/matrixcow.mpeg

[PennsylvaniaMom]

I can say plenty, sitetest.

I read this article on Drudge and had to come to FR to vent IMMEDIATELY.

I can honestly say, as a practicing, lifelong Catholic, that I am ashamed of the Cardinal's statement. Truly ashamed. I pray that the Vatican will actually issue an official statement and refute this idiot. If they don't...it speaks volumes (again) as to the out of touch nature of the heirarchy of the Church both at the Holy See and in America.

Pity, and prayers should be reserved for the victims of Saddam's brutality not for him. I don't know who said it (I think it was John McCain) but at the start of the War on Terror, I remember reading this line "We're coming for you...God may have mercy on you, but we won't."

[Iowegian]

On the contrary, the cardinal is the one with the superiority complex. "We are too compassionate to ever humiliate anyone like that" in other words.

He's a pathetic, pompous, pacifist puke. And I hope for the sake of the world and all catholics that he is in no way on the short list to be the next #1 in the RC church. Or anyone that thinks like him either. He should be rejoicing that a murdering tyrant is being brought to justice. I think this cardinal's response is an embarrassment to all American catholics IMO.

[FlatLandBeer]

Guys kill thousands of people with out mercy...and this Cardinal is worried about him being treated as a cow. Must be a hold over from the Liberation (aspostate) Theology crowd.

[rogator]

One of the worst things about an buffoon like Martino making a dumb comment like this is that it reveals the deep seated bigotry and hatred in several of the posters on this thread.

[PattonReincarnated]

> Even Jesus cleared out the temple!

Amen. We are clearing the temple in Iraq so-to-speak. (And, there is a considerable difference between rift-raft that Christ cleared out of the temple and what we are clearing out of Iraq.)

Our actions are not incongruous with forgiveness. With this warped attitude towards forgiveness innocence shall never be protected. I believe Christ would have something GOOD to say about our soldiers, airmen and sailors giving their lives to protect innocence. (Brief aside – the root of the word Good is God)

I have complete confidence that one day our “good” actions will ultimately clear the Temple mount and the Temple will be rebuilt. (note: I do not normally think in these terms as we wage war on terrorism, but I do read the Bible every GD day.)

-PattonReincarnated

[Domestic Church]

"Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Justice and Peace department"

I don't know much about this guy but the title of his department leads me to speculate that it is part of the socialist wing infiltrating the Vatican... unfortunately anything with "Peace" in the heading should be scrutinized these days as it has become a modus time and time again as part of the left's agenda.

[mickie]

Do you know what the Vatican's email address is?

I am sorely distressed by his comments.

[dsc]

Do you really believe...so many pieces of Silver will wash away the Horror, and Memories of Psychological and Physical abuse?"

Human justice doesn't pretend to be able to "wash away" such things, and if that's what you're demanding, you'll never see justice.

All human justice can do is punish the guilty and try to make such reparation to the victims as may be possible. And those things are happening.

God's mercy can wash away the horror and the memories, and I pray that it does. But we exiled children of Eve are far more limited in what we can do.

"Most of the Cardinals and Bishops are still in Place"

I think you'll find that the number of those who are still in place is shrinking steadily. Law, O'Brien, Weakland, and others are out. Not every bishop who assigned a molester to parish work knew that the priest in question was a molester. In recent months, a number of bishops have been appointed who have made this a top priority, meeting with victims and coming to agreements.

"and a great many of the abusers are in retirement homes paid for by the contributiuons of the Faithful."

How many, exactly, would that be?

"I certainly don't see any Justice in the acts of the Hierarchs."

Priests have been defrocked and jailed. Bishops have been asked to retire, and better ones appointed. Records have been opened to investigators. Policies have been implemented to prevent the reassignment of molesters to positions with access to potential victims. Victims have been heard, their accusations acknowledged and validated, and the only possible reparation--financial--offered.

We're not looking at perfection, but I think there's movement in the right direction. What would satisfy you?

"Cardinal" Law still has his position and travels all over the world at the expense of the People, Some Justice"

What position is that? He's no longer in charge of a diocese. Are you saying he should have been defrocked, that he should no longer be a priest? Well, maybe so. But he has been removed from a position of authority that would allow him to assign homosexual priests to parish work. That is analagous to revoking a doctor's license to practice medicine.

As for traveling all over the world at the expense of the people, I don't know. Is he doing that, and is the Church paying for it? Considering that he resigned in disgrace, that would seem to be odd.

[Happy2BMe]

"Cardinal Says U.S. Treated Saddam 'Like a Cow'"

Unbelievable! And what about those 300,000 corpses laying around mass graves in Iraq, how were they treated by Saddam?

Can cardinals be impeached?

[malakhi]

Give me a break. Like politicians, Cardinal's can gradually slide down the scale of liberlism and get caught up in the social justice quagmire. The fact that JP II appointed him in 1980 does not mean that the Cardinal held those views in 1980.

Give ME a break. Martino was made a cardinal in OCTOBER 2003.

[ThomasMore]

Martino needs to concentrate on being a Catholic and a Cardinal and get out of politics.

Many of these EU Cardinals are socialists first.

Govern the church properly...please...

[Domestic Church]

"This is so unbelievable to me but I guess I just can't quite "get it" that the same church that protects pedophiles would surely protect murdering tyrants."

It's as if it was calculated to cause this effect....slowly imploding the faith from within. There's much more beneath the surface of this.

[Consort]

He obviously thinks Sadddam is a Sacred Cow. Is this guy a Cardinal Bishop, Cardinal Archbishop, Cardinal Priest, or Cardinal Deacon. Maybe he needs to be demoted to Deacon.