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.
No contrast at all.
I've blasted the Pope and this goofball Martino for nine months for being completely and totally wrong on the Iraq war.
Martino just can't keep his goombah mouth shut and embarasses himself with the country he formerly ministered to as nuncio every time he opens it.
American Catholics shake their heads when these metrosexual ecclesiastics, with their manicured nails, opine from luxury while our boys are dying so that others can be free.
I have temporarily locked the thread so that anyone currently replying will not miss this message. I will unlock it shortly.
Well, who made him a cardinal?
According to THIS WEBSITE, this "very very very liberal social justice" priest was made a bishop in 1980 by John Paul II. He was appointed to his UN position in 1986 by John Paul II. He was appointed head of the curial Justice and Peace department in 2002 by John Paul II. And he received his red hat in the latest round of appointments, being made cardinal on October 21, 2003 at the choice of, you guessed it, John Paul II.
The pope sure has a funny way of distancing himself from this guy's "very very very liberal social justice" views.
What can I say?
I'll say it for you. The college of cardinals, unfortunately is larded with leftists like Martino.
Head of the Justice and Peace department indeed! formal papal envoy to the UN.
If my Church doesn't get off it's backside and return to the business of saving souls and functioning as a moral compass for mankind, then our Savior is going to be mighty angry!
Being Catholic, I understand the theology behind this.
You don't have to say anything. Cardinal Martino is NOT an official spokemsman for the Vatican, he's just a prelate assigned at the Vatican spouting his personal opinion. When the Pope speaks, or one of his top spokesmen like Juaquin Navaro Valls or Cardinal Ratzinger then it's different. But till then, this guy Martino is just ranting his personal opinions in the hopes that somebody will think he's officially speaking for the Church.
As for his statement about Saddam being treated like a cow, that's about five hundred times better treatment than Saddam handed out to his own people, so the good Cardinal should be grateful that the pictures weren't of Saddam being dragged thru the streets of Baghdad with a rope tied around his neck and the people stoning him to death.
What, they have no remote controls at the vatican?
Who does the cardinal propose should repair the drama and damage imposed on humanity by Saddam? Oh, that's different?
I don't believe the Pope is in any shape anymore to take a swipe at his own nose, let alone the USA.
Prairie
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