Adios, Saddam
Reports this evening say that Saddam Hussein has been executed. I have really mixed feelings about this. Certainly he is guilty of terrible crimes and must be punished. Even if imprisoned for life, he might still serve as a kind of spiritual leader for terrorists. The world is better off with him gone.
On the other hand, a nice quick hanging is not remotely comparable to the horrific deaths he inflicted on many others. Part of me says he should suffer more. Then I remember Jesus said to love our enemies. It's a weird thought - justice demands that people like Saddam be put to death, but we are still supposed to do it with love.
I recently heard a priest say that we should never presume to know whether someone is in heaven or hell. Even the most evil person may have repented in the last seconds before death, and God in His mercy may accept them for reasons that are beyond our understanding. This seems unlikely for Saddam, but we can't rule it out. There is no webcam at the Pearly Gates for us to watch.
So adios, Saddam, wherever you are. Vaya con Dios. Of one thing we can be certain: God's justice will be served, in His own way and on His own time. We should pray for Saddam's victims who remain on Earth, that this action will help heal their wounds and bring them peace.
5 comments:
Pat- below is an excerpt from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. I'm curious as to your opinion: Do you think Saddam's execution is in keeping with the Church's teaching?
Tim
"2267 Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.
If, however, nonlethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.
Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent."
I've studied this section. It's difficult because the Church leaves the door open for capital punishment, if only a tiny bit. An absolute prohibition would be easier to understand.
The key question is whether there is another way to defend people from further crimes by this person. In Saddam's case, he has the ability to cause mayhem indirectly; his mere existence could make him an inspirational figure to Islamic terrorists. This would suggest his execution was right.
On the other hand, the Islamic terrorists don't really need more excuses to cause mayhem. They do it anyway. Now Saddam is a martyr to them and remains an inspirational figure even in death. So executing him may have accomplished nothing in this regard.
Then there is the question of escape. As long as Saddam lives, there is a chance, however well-guarded he may be, that he could escape and return to some kind of power, somewhere. Napoleon did so. Death is the only way to be 100% sure he will never order more killing and torture.
Weighing all this, I believe executing Saddam was the right thing to do, but I don't think we should be dancing in the streets to celebrate it. It was a sad end to an ugly story, any way you look at it.
I saw a quote recently, which I can't find right now, from Cardinal Ratzinger before he became Pope. He said that while abortion and euthanasia are intrinsically evil and can never be accepted, there is room for legitimate disagreement about the death penalty. We can debate it all day and still be good Catholics on both sides.
I'll also say this: the way we practice capital punishment in the US, and especially Texas, gives me serious problems. That is another subject, though. I will try to write about it sometime.
Pat- not sure who sent it, but the same question I posed to you was sent to Mark Shea. See his blog site for his response.
Tim
Right, I just Mark's post earlier this evening. He makes excellent points as usual. As I said, on balance I think this qualifies as one of the rare instances when death is justified. Mark disagrees. It is a moot argument now.
It's moot for Saddam, but it's definitely worth rehashing. If a mistake was made, perhaps it could be avoided in the future. It happened so quickly, I'm not sure most of us had a chance to give it real thought prior to the execution. We may not get much notice on the next occasion, so this is a good warning.
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