Thank G-d for our President, who can identify true evil and call it by its name. Thank G-d for our president, who sheds tears for the innocent.
Posted on 12/16/2003 5:54:51 AM PST by sitetest
Edited on 12/16/2003 7:13:44 AM PST by Lead Moderator. [history]
[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.
What you call an explanation, I call a justification (to use a theological term). But also it sure seemed that Romulus, at least, agreed with the Cardinal. That is not just an "explanation". Comprende?
Thank G-d for our President, who can identify true evil and call it by its name. Thank G-d for our president, who sheds tears for the innocent.
Were you talking about some of the posters here? ;-)
I daresay Rome esteems the UN more highly than being a ZDSFH.
...Martino Has no idea what "compassion" means. He makes me embarrassed to be a Christian. On Martino's behalf, I apologize to the Iraqi people.
But suffering has a proper place. Jesus suffered by dying for mankind on the cross, Job suffered ---- suffering can be good. Saddam has a need to suffer.
That is a good way to put it. In his hierarchy, posturing for the high moral ground makes him feel more Christ like. Overall, it was a stupid statement from a man who has no responsibility for truly protecting free and good people from evil. So he is a spectator to the process and preserves some sense of neutrality.
He certainly does not speak for this Catholic!
Saddam is alive...which is more than we can say for hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqi men, women and children.
And, after the Butcher of Baghdad is pulled from a stinking rat hole...he's not handcuffed or shackled...he's given an exam to assess his medical condition and needs. In this Catholic American's opinion...this was damn honorable...far more honorable a reaction than Saddam and his henchmen have given our captured soldiers.
May God bless the courage and humanity of our brave soldiers.
If these type of liberals knew what true compassion was .. they would listen to the people in Iraq that survived Saddam and his Torturing Thugs ..
Maybe this Cardinal should stop praying for Saddam and should spend more time praying for the hundreds of thousands of Iraqi people in the mass graves .. maybe he should be praying for all those people that Saddam and his Torturing Thugs put threw the shredding machines
As a Catholic .. I am embarrassed this Cardinal is part of my Church
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