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The past few days, Saddam Hussein's death sentence has been pasted all over Yahoo top news (which i feel is a great way of keeping ppl who only surf the net, updated on current world news!). I've been so disturbed by the upholding of his death sentence., regardless of his crimes. I concede i don't know squat about the suffering torment and agony he put his people and his enemies through, nor would i know the gravity of what he did, but i personally feel that it's not in our meek human hands to take it upon ourselves to execute and take the life of another human being. We're merely sinking to their low levels and that makes us no better... but what can i do, and would have even made a difference? Thankfully the Vatican has reiterated its stand on the death penalty and how it's sticking to and standing by it!


Vatican cleric hopes for clemency for Saddam
1 hour, 54 minutes ago
A senior Catholic cleric has said he hopes former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein will be spared execution, citing the Church's opposition to the death penalty.

Cardinal Renato Martino, head of the Vatican's Justice and Peace department, was quoted in Italy's Repubblica newspaper on Thursday saying there was a chance for last-minute clemency for Saddam after an appeals court upheld his death sentence.

"There's still a period of 30 days (before the death sentence must be carried out), the president's signature is required, things can happen," Martino was reported as saying.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi has also condemned the decision to impose the death penalty.

Martino criticized the U.S. authorities at the time of Saddam's capture in December 2003 for releasing TV pictures of soldiers checking his teeth "as if he were a cow," images that he said needlessly humiliated the man.

The former papal envoy to the United Nations said there was "no doubt" that Saddam was responsible for mass murders, but that did not change the Church's opposition to capital punishment.

"You can't think of compensating for one crime with another one," he said. Saddam was sentenced in November for crimes against humanity and the death penalty was upheld on Tuesday.

Martino said he backed the idea of holding a peace conference aimed at solving all the major conflicts in the Middle East and reiterated the Vatican's position that invasion of Iraq by U.S.-led coalition was wrong.

"(Pope) John Paul II did his duty. He said it would be an adventure from which there was no return. Now that is what we are seeing."

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