Saddam Hussein: Execution

It's not very festive, but it is everywhere. Saddam Hussein was executed in the early hours of yesterday morning, and every front page of every newspaper features a picture of him with the noose around his neck.

But should he have faced the death penalty? Read the following statement regarding the reaction from the Vatican.

Some of the strongest criticism came from the Vatican. The Catholic Church teaches that all human life must be respected from conception until its natural end. The execution "is tragic news . . . that risks feeding the spirit of revenge and sowing new violence," said Pope Benedict XVI's spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi.

"Even though this is a person guilty of grave crimes," Lombardi told Vatican Radio, the execution "is a motive for sadness. The killing of a guilty party is not the way to build justice nor to reconcile society."

http://www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20061231/1057956.asp

What do you think?

(War and Punishment are some of the issues which will be covered later in A2 Ethics.)