My friend Joseph D'Hippolito has an article in Front Page Magazine which discusses the Catholic Church's position on the death penalty as it relates to the death sentence handed down in the Saddam Hussein trial:
If today’s Catholic bishops lived during the Nuremberg trials, they would have condemned the execution of nine of the defendants – including Ernst Kaltenbrunner and Hans Frank.
Kaltenbrunner was responsible for mass executions of civilians and prisoners of war as Heinrich Himmler’s chief SS lieutenant; Frank oversaw the Nazis’ numerous atrocities as the governor of occupied Poland.
Such a presumptuous proposition seems plausible given two Vatican officials’ opposition to Saddam Hussein’s death sentence – and the Catholic Church’s moral revisionism concerning capital punishment.
Iraq’s High Tribunal convicted Saddam of committing crimes against humanity and sentenced him to death on Nov. 5. Reaction from the Vatican was swift.
“For me, punishing a crime with another crime – which is what killing for vindication is – would mean that we are still at the point of demanding an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” Cardinal Renato Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Peace and Justice, told the Italian news agency ANSA.
“God has given us life and only God can take it away,” Martino continued. “Life is a gift that the Lord has given us, and we must protect it from conception until natural death. The death sentence is not a natural death.”
Martino is the same man who expressed public sympathy for Saddam upon his capture and whom veteran Vatican journalist Sandro Magister called “a cardinal out of control.” Yet Martino is not alone in his sentiments.
Go read the whole thing.
8 comments:
This is not the position of the Catholic church. This is the position of a cardinal who has lost touch with reality. Despite misleading statements by thy AP, the Curia has released no such condemnation of the death penalty against Saddam.
You know, I believe you, because I have seen statements come out on other issues which I knew to be at odds with Benedict's positions.
Here's my question, though. Why is it that Benedict doesn't come down on these Cardinals when they do this kind of stuff.
We've got a Cardinal here in the US who is working to ensure that the US does not protect the integrity of our borders. He is completely out of line, but Benedict doesn't come down on him from what I can tell.
at least these Cardinals are not as hypocritical as the average lefty/liberal, who is in favour of abortion for unborn children, and at the same time against the death penalty for even the worst criminals.
Having said this, I think that Saddam's trial was mostly a show trial. It was not a coincidence thatthe sentence was passed just for the US elections. The guy deserved this punishment, it is humane compared how he treated his opponents.
A second critical note: Saddam was convicted on charges of killing 148 people. Of course he killed far more, but these are the charges that are brought against him. Today between 100 and 200 Iraqis are dieing every day, due to the civil war that the US invasion has triggered.
Are people ready to challenge the liberal assumptions about the world that made them think the invasion was a good idea?
I mean the ideas about cultures and peoples being equal and that anybody who thinks else is a racist? Everybody in the whole world just wants freedom? This is what most leftwing AND right wing Americans think and it is BULLSHIT.
Saddam may have been a real bastard, but a real bastard in charge is just what most Middle Eastern countries need.
Regards,
Snouck
Snouck,
I'm with you on the idea that cultures are not equal. There's no doubt about that.
It's a little hard for me to believe that certain races are genetically pre-disposed to abhor freedom.
Is that what you think?
Btw concerning the living in clans and marrying in the family this also happened in Europe in pagan times. The church saw the effect it had on society and basically outlawed cousin marriages. Even there is no basis in the Scripture to do so. Western society was made possible by this policy by the Church in the Middle Ages.
Also my grandparents told me that during the war when the delivery of food to certain parts of The Netherlands was stopped by resistance ordered strikes at first the state stopped being able to help the people. People relied on the church. At a certain point stocks fell so low that the churches could not get food to their members.
Finally only blood relations with food to spare would share. All other bonds of social organisation proved too weak.
Regards,
Snouck
I've read enough Nietzsche to know that what you say of Europeans is true. Euros do seem to be rather tribalistic. You guys are even tribalistic about your sports teams. That's why you have the outbreaks of violence and the shouting at black players and the like.
I must admit that it is true that, especially as an American, it is almost impossible for us to recognize this tribalism. Even when we do recognize it, we think it is so self-evidently worthless that we can't understand that someone wouldn't just drop the charade right off.
Anyway, there is no doubt that what you say of the ME is true with respect to tribalism. And, yes, I can see that freedom has a very different meaning to people in their part of the world.
I can only say that my experience in life is completely different. I am married to a woman who moved here from a third world country (Phillipines) when she was nine. There are many ways in which she is more American than I am.
As a white guy, I am a minority within my own family. My sisters kids are White, Sicilian, Chinese and Black.
We all get along just fine, and we all have pretty much the same outlook on life.
So, the question is, why does this work in America and not in other places in the world?
Admittedly, I don't think Muslims are as well integrated in America as are other groups of people.
I hope it doesn't sound like I'm being an obnoxious American here. I am only trying to tell you, as accurately as possible, what I observe around me on a daily basis.
It might help you to know that my parents are from Britain, and they live there now, as does a good deal of the rest of my family.
Pastorius:
"So, the question is, why does this work in America and not in other places in the world?"
Snouck:
the USA is young and it has not been tested yet extensively. The long, grinding experience of history shows that nations must have common bonds of ethnicity, religion and culture to survive bad times.
Bad times will happen to the USA. They ARE happening to the USA. At the same time your elites are pseruing an insane immigration policy at the detriment of the core ethnic group: whites. Because the USA is subject to the same laws of humanity as the rest of us, the results of this policy will be what we have seen over and over again.
You keep bringing up your multiethnic family as a kind of magic spell, but you got to realise that ethnicity is just family writ large. It is the oldest social unit, and both are hard wired in our bodies.
There is no escape from this reality.
Deal with it.
Regards,
Snouck
Snouck,
I bring up my multi-ethnic family because it is my experience. My experience runs counter to what you are saying. Deal with that.
I mean, what can you say? It works for me. And, it works for millions of Americans. It's not like I am some anomaly, or rare bird. One could look at statistics and see that this is just the way America is.
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