VATICAN CITY – No one should be put to death, not even former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, said Cardinal Paul Poupard, president of the pontifical councils for Interreligious Dialogue and for Culture.
"The Catechism of the Catholic Church, the church itself and the pope reaffirm that every person is a creature of God and that no one but the creator can claim to be the lord of the life and death of another," the cardinal said June 21 in an interview with the Italian news agency ANSA.
"Every creature, even the most wretched, was created in the image and likeness of God," the French cardinal said. "God is the master of life and death."
The cardinal made his comments after Avvenire, the Italian bishops' daily newspaper, published an editorial June 20 calling for the life imprisonment and not the execution of Saddam and his co-defendants, who are on trial in Iraq.
"Even in the daily slaughterhouse of Iraq a human life – any human life – always is sacred," the newspaper said.
Revenge, even resulting from a fair trial, "will not heal wounds, but rather risks exacerbating them further," Avvenire said. "Nothing gives legitimacy to a killing unless it is motivated by a compelling need for legitimate defense."
In his final arguments in Saddam's trial June 19, the chief prosecutor called for the death penalty for Saddam and his co-defendants "because they spread corruption on earth, they showed no mercy even for the old, for women or for children, and even the trees were not safe from their oppression."
"The law calls for the death penalty, and this is what we ask be implemented," the prosecutor told the court.
Comments that include profanity, personal attacks, antisocial behavior such as "spamming" and "trolling," or other inappropriate comments or material will not be posted on Catholic Online. Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive. We will take steps to block users who violate any of our
terms of service. While Catholic Online invites robust discussion, we maintain the right to not print material that is patently false in its claims concerning the teaching of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, overtly anti-Catholic or which, in the opinion of the moderator, are intended to mislead readers as to what the Catholic Church teaches. Comments DO NOT necessarily reflect the opinion or views of Catholic Online.
RSS | Make Catholic Online Your Homepage
