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""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."

Misplaced compassion for all that. His victims deserve better. Begin Catholic, I understand the theology behind that statement, but Sen. John McCain said it best,

"We are coming. God may have mercy on you, but we will not."

"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.

A couple of reality checks for the Cardinal:

(1) TV footage of a dental exam may not be beautiful, but it's hardly tragic. Calling such tragedy is to debase our appreciation of real tragedy, such as when an innocent, Jesus, is executed in place of the guilty. Surely this isn't news to our "top Vatican official"

(2) "Compassion" literally means to "suffer with." Dictionary.com provides this contemporary definition: "Deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it." Neither definition applies here. The only suffering Saddam faced when filmed was shame at being caught by his enemy despite the boast to die fighting. I don't see how the Cardinal could have deep awareness of that; he certainly wasn't suffering with Saddam.

Such pious platitudes are, once again, in sharp contrast to the reality exemplified by Christ, who's compassion for his elect was expressed in his suffering with them by setting aside his glory to become a man and die by capital punishment for the sins of other men. If the Cardinal wishes to follow this example and take Saddam's place in the firing squad, then I'll grant him his claim to compassion.

In the meantime, he should keep his sympathy to himself rather than boast about it to the media, which he should recall aren't friends of the Vatican in the first place.