Catholic World News News Feature

Cardinal Martino deplores death verdict for Saddam Hussein November 06, 2006

The president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace has issued a statement deploring the death penalty imposed on deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

Cardinal Renato Raffaele Martino said with regret that the sentence determined by an Iraqi court reflected the principle of "an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth."

"Capital punishment is not natural death," said the outspoken Italian prelate, who has criticized the treatment of the former Iraqi strongman since his capture in December 2003. "Life is a gift that the Lord has given us, and we must protect it from conception until natural death."

Cardinal Martino said that it is unfortunate that Saddam Hussein was tried in Iraq, rather than before the International Criminal Court. In that legal forum, he observed, "he would not have been condemned to the death sentence," since the international tribunal does not allow capital punishment. Iraq, the cardinal continued, is "one of those countries that have not yet made the civilized choice to abolish the death penalty."

Cardinal Martino has been the Vatican's most forceful critic of the war in Iraq, which he characterized as a "war of aggression" by the US and its allies. When Saddam Hussein was captured, the Italian prelate accused coalition forces of treating him 'like a beast," said that he felt "compassion" for the deposed ruler, and said that Hussein should not face the death penalty. Cardinal Martino's comments at that time were so strong that a senior Vatican official took the unusual step of telling reporters that the cardinal was not speaking for Pope John Paul II.

The Vatican's Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, made no public comment on the Iraqi court's decision.