AUSTRALIAN Catholic Social Justice Council chairman Bishop Christopher Saunders has denounced the execution of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, describing it as a “terrible spectacle” that should remind all Christians of the pointlessness and obscenity of the death penalty.
In a letter sent to Catholic media around Australia on January 4 and published in this week’s Catholic Leader, the Bishop of Broome said the Church’s teaching on the death penalty was clear.
Bishop Saunders said he was disappointed that the Australian Government had not been more vocal over Saddam’s execution.
Bishop Saunders’ denigration of the execution has been echoed by the Catholic Church around the world.
Executing someone guilty of a crime “is not the way to restore justice and reconcile society”, Vatican spokesman Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi said after Saddam Hussein was hanged on December 30.
“A capital execution is always tragic news, a motive for sadness, even when it involves a person found guilty of serious crimes,” he said.
President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, Cardinal Renato Martino, told Vatican Radio on December 30, “I hope and pray that this act will not contribute to aggravating the already critical situation in Iraq, a country already so harshly tried by divisions and fratricidal struggles.”
