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.

[TheCrusader]

"Martino was speaking for the Pope. Only the clueless will claim otherwise."

Well, hey, if the secular media says it's so, then it must be so.

[Notwithstanding]

I understand the Cadinal to hav spoken too rashly.
What he says about the dignity of Saddam is true - even now God would welcome him to heaven if he would repent.

BUT - the video of him being examined was not shown gratutitously - it was shown for a good purpose that actually promotes peace. Much like placing a man in jail if he is a criminal cna be seen to offend his dignity, it is an act we condone morally because it is necessary to pomote peace and because the undignified treament is self-induced. Taping his capture and medical exam shows the world that we got him, we did get a DNA sample, we are certain it is him, and that the great one who was feared is now a cowering imp who is defeated.

The Cardinal was wrong to make such an rash comment.

Thank God we do not consider such pronouncements infallible!

THe

[giotto]

With every utterance from the vatican, I feel more and more estranged from what the Catholic Church has become. Eurotrash is right.

[TheCrusader]

"Martino was speaking for the Pope. Only the clueless will claim otherwise."

The October 18, 2003 edition of "La Civilta Cattolica", the official, prestigious Vatican Magazine, published a long article about the evils of Islam, and how dangerous radical Islam is to Christians and other religions. The article condemned not only modern Islam, but tore into its entire history as a people of violence and invasion. Did this official Vatican Magazine not speak for the Pope?

[JFC]

I wonder if the Cardinal approves of the way many of his preists treated boys!

[ninenot]

A friend of mine's brother worked for Martino at the UN. In all other regards, Martino is an OK guy.

But on this one, there's a "Euroweenie" syndrome that he's expressing, and as observed above, this foolish chatter will only make it more difficult for the Vatican in the future.

It's like calling everyone a racist. Pretty soon, the term has no meaning anymore.

[tiki]

I think he was treated more humanely than he warranted.

[Mr. Mojo]

"Seeing him like this, a man in his tragedy, despite all the heavy blame he bears, I had a sense of compassion for him,"

I wonder if the Cardinal would feel compassion if it were his loved ones that the cow Saddam placed feet-first in industrial shredders?

[ninenot]

That's not all. Both French- and German-owned companies were making zillions from Saddam's Gummint. Those revenue sources (tax proceeds) are now gone.

Note that Bush has told Schlumberger, the French civil-engineering and major-major-major league construction company, to go whistle up their, ah, nose...

[Mr. Mojo]

If anyone thinks the Pope doesn't agree with Martino's sentiments, he's delusional.

Kinda like the folks who believe that Tom Ridge's views on amnesty for illegals actually surprised the WH.

[Roarkdude]

This letter to my Priest should get me excommunicated:

I have a complaint. I'm going to direct my rage into this e-mail and send it to you because I need to vent, and I think that this needs to be said. However, there's nothing you can do about it so don't feel like you have to respond and please don't take it personally.

Cardinal Renato Martino said that he "felt pity and compassion" for Saddam Hussein (see article: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=586&e=1&u=/nm/20031216/wl_nm/iraq_saddam_vatican_dc ) after seeing him treated like "a cow" at the hands of the US military.
How does such a moral idiot rise to such a high level in the Church? Does he feel pity that Hitler shot himself? Would it be better if Saddam was still in power to torture and kill another million people? When the police arrest a murderer is Cardinal Martino sad because hand-cuffs may have hurt?
What's amazing is that you have to really go out of your way to see this as humiliating Saddam. The video shows him taken "peacefully" and given medical attention. They even let him keep his mustache out of respect for his culture. But no, Cardinal Martino can't wait to jump on the band wagon of diminishing the what a great and happy day it is, probably because it represents a stunning success in a war that the Church opposed: "Vatican officials most strongly opposed to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq." because they do 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." This is the same UN that puts Sudan in charge of their Human Rights Council. The Sudan is where slavery still exists today. And apparently 12 years of negotiation were not enough for the Vatican whilst the Iraqi people were brutalized and Saddam's money flowed to terrorists to spread their murder abroad.
God bless the United States of America and Thank God we are able to stand up and fight evil and tyranny in the world. The world is lucky that the leaders of this country are blessed with moral clarity.
You would think that the Church would be a supporter of Good and speak out against Evil. Instead, the Church opens its mouth and sounds like a Evil's Johnny Cochran.
See you Sunday,

[ClintonBeGone]

I saw you tried to ping me to the other thread, this guy is a major a-hole.

These are the types of guys give Catholics a bad name. While you're at it, do away with the US Conference of Bishops too. :)

[Republican Wildcat]

You are equating the treatment of the U.S. Soldiers being interrogated on television to showing Saddam on video to prove that we had captured him? Am I reading your post correctly?

[The KG9 Kid]

The Roman Catholic church's hierarchy has become top heavy with fairies who turn a blind eye to tyrants and pedophiles.

Whatever happened to the Irish Catholic priests who wore a pair of boxing gloves around their necks and taught kids that were being picked on how to fight back? Those guys just don't get up the ladder, I guess.

If they ever elect a Pope who reminds us of Bing Crosby in The Bells of St. Mary's, let me know.

[Major_Risktaker]

We recall that the Roman mosque of Monte Antenne, constructed on land donated by the Italian government, was principally financed by Saudi Arabia and was built to be the largest mosque in Europe, in the very heart of Christianity.

Nice post...

That mosque maybe the price to pay for a steady oil supply.

I'm also waiting for a Christan Church and a Jewish Synagogue to be built as a good faith gesture in Mecca, the very heart of Islam from our peace loving Saudi allies.

If you know anything about European history between 1860 and 1925, Islam as we know it today is finished because their political system is the same as old Europe. This is the same US-UK game plan, just 100 years later.

These wars are just the beginning...

[Palladin]

More proof that there are Commies at the Vatican.

[Catspaw]

The Cardinal’s having pity on Saddam does not indicate that the Cardinal lacks pity for Saddam’s victims, or does not wish Saddam to be punished for his crimes.

You know this how? Some sort of clairvoyance, perhaps? If the Cardinal has said so in print, please post the story. If you cannot show me where this Cardinal has shown one iota of compassion towards Saddam's victims, his silence is telling.

Until you post a story about this Cardinal expressing any words towards Saddam's victims, I will note that this Cardinal has said nothing about the tens of thousands--in fact, hundreds of thousands--of the victims of Saddam's torture chambers, rape rooms, those who were beaten, shot, stabbed, had their tongues cut out, had their bodies cut up and dumped on their family's doorways, buried in mass graves, poisoned, gassed...I could go on about the many and varied ways Saddam and members of his regime murdered and tortured their victims. This Cardinal's sole concern seems to be how Saddam was being treated so rudely by US forces.

[Robert Drobot]

Thank you Crusader for your clarity. If only the Vatican would recognize they are the prey, and Islam is determined in its efforts to destroy the Roman Catholic Church, and all other churches embracing Christ Jesus as their God.

A single world wide religion is impossible. Pagans do not pray to the same 'god'.

False prophets in the Vatican, clothed as shepards while masking the face of Satan, have turned their back on His First Commandment and Holy Scripture.

These fakers of my faith demand I accept and adore a false god created by them to bury my belief in the True God.

These 'we all pray to the same god' heretics have already deployed a multiple offense. They are presently seeking to promote the presence of pagan idols at the Holy Shrine of Fatima.

They've believe they can succeed where Satan has failed. God Almighty will not permit these false prophets to duplicate within His Church the success Satan had in the Garden of Eden. That betrayal was washed away only through the agony and death of His Son. His Church will not suffer harm from temporal beings who have attained their status within the Apostolic Church by the sale of their most precious possession - their soul - to the angel of darkness,Lucifer.

The Holy Ghost and His armies of angels led by His protector, St. Michael the Archangel, will also be our protector.

By the will of God, the present outward siege by pagans, and the internal heretical attacks led by followers of Satan, will pass.

We need only seek, through prayer, the protection of Christ our Savior, His Father, God Almighty the spiritual armor of the Holy Ghost to stop this demonic onslaught against our faith.

As we rise to defend Christianity, we will, once again follow in the footsteps of those brave Christian crusaders who went before us. And we will resolutely bear the burden necessary to assure the freedom of unimpeded religious worship to our sons and daughters and their offspring to pray to the One True Savior, Jesus Christ.

May we manifest His strength to destroy anyone who would dare raise a pagan sword or a heretical dagger ( pen ) to challenge Him.

[mercy]

One has to ask, Who does this cardinal serve? Does he serve Christ with this anti-American slander? No. Not The Christ who drove evil-doers out of the Temple with violence and called the religious leaders of His day 'Whitened Sepulchres .... full of dead men's bones'.

Who does he serve? There is one force today on the international scene resisting the greatest world-wide evil since Nazism. The US. This most influential man, perhaps in line to be the next Pope, believes he serves some cause by siding with the darkness against The U.S.

He serves The Beast. Why is he a Cardinal?

[mercy]

With all due respect,

In attacking the evils of Islamist extremism we are never censored. Why is attacking the evil of Roman Catholic extremism any different? I really want to know.