Death of a Dictator - Saddam Hussein

Sometime shortly before 6:00 am Iraqi time Sat, 30 Dec 2006 Saddam Hussein came to the end of his life & went to face his eternal judgement. He was hung for his role in the deaths of 148 Shiite Muslims in 1982. Those deaths that he caused were in revenge for an attempt on his life.

I was watching the news coverage on Fox News. I have to be honest, I have mixed feelings about his execution. & not because I am opposed to the death penalty. Rather, it was because by human standards I knew that there is no way his loosing his life once would make up for all those lives he was responsible for ending. Human justice would never be enough, but it was the best we could do. I realized that true justice for his victims could only be achieved by Hussein's standing in judgement before God.

I do not pretend to know what Hussein's final thoughts were, nor will I condemn him to hell. I can't. I can only pray that he repented in his final moments. Until the Final Judgement none of us will actually know. I do know that unless he did repent & turn to Jesus he will have to pay for his sins in Hell.

I do know that I want to see Hussein pay for his crimes, not out of vengance, but out of justice for his victims. & despite my personal opposition to the death penalty, because of the official teachings of the Catholic Church respects the state's right to use the death penalty (Par 2267 Catechism, Q 469 Compendium) I have to respect Iraq's right to use it. I would have prefered that Iraq hadn't used it. & while I respect those Catholic leaders who speak out against it, I wish they would accurately represent the Church's teaching in doing so. A prime example of this was Cardinal Renato Martino's mistatement. His statement made it sound like the Catholic Church has issued a blanket ban on the death penalty. It hasn't. I would advise the Cardinal to go back & reread the Church's teaching.

What needs to be remembered in all this is that what Hussein did was evil pure & simple. He is on a par with Hitler & Stalin in the evils he did. & he needed to be stopped. He has been stopped. I wish that in stopping him we could permanently put an end to evil of this sort. History shows otherwise. Until the 2nd coming there will be men & women who will give themselves over to evil. We will need to always be vigilant & battle it, both with physical & spiritual weapons. Prayer is important, so is proclaiming the Gospel, but there will also be times when we will be left with no recourse than to defend the weak & oppressed by the use of war (under Aquinas' Just War Theory criteria being met).

Saddam Hussein is dead. He paid the price for his crimes. I am saddened by his death because it came about as a result of his choice to do evil. & I cannot rejoice in what evil does. But, I can rejoice that his reign of terror is at an end. I can thank God that now there is an opportunity to build a democratic society in Iraq. It won't be easy, but it can be done. & we all need to pray for it to come about.

(See FoxNews.com's Saddam Hussein's Atrocities for a list of the evils I refered to above.)