Green Energy
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.
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Green Energy
Sympathy For A Devil
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.
- Justice And Vengence: Chemical Ali Hanged
Newsmax Iraq's 'Chemical Ali' Infamous for 1988 Gas Attack Monday, 25 Jan 2010 11:47 AM Saddam Hussein's cousin Ali Hassan al-Majid, who was hanged Monday, ordered the infamous poison gas attack on the northern Iraqi Kurdish village of...
- Bye Bye Saddam
I was pleasantly surprised to read tonight that Saddam's imminent hanging is likely to be much more imminent than the thirty days as initially reported earlier this week: Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, sentenced to death for his role in 148...
- Afghan And Iranian Women Prefer To Be Dead Than Muslim
When can we start calling evil, evil? What kind of religion condemns women to such living hell that they increasingly choose suicide by burning to death over being alive? From the BBC: Increasing numbers of Afghan women are committing suicide by setting...
- Pontificating Against Israel
Joseph D'Hippolito, a friend of mine, and a man I know to be a devout Catholic, calls the Vatican out on its moral confusion with regards to the war between Israel and Hizbollah: As Israel began its latest campaign of self-defense, the Vatican’s...
- The Pope Sends Mixed Messages About Islam
Pope Benedict seems to get it, and then he seems to lose his head in an orifice one doesn't usually associate with Holiness: VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI urged Islamic countries to ensure religious rights for Christian migrants Monday while also...