THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A Roman Catholic cardinal has said Christians should pray for the soul of Osama bin Laden despite the atrocities he perpetrated."I have prayed for the soul of Osama bin Laden. We have to pray for him just like we pray for the victims of Sept 11. It's what Jesus teaches Christians," Albert Vanhoye, 87, a French cardinal, told an Italian newspaper, Il Messaggero on Wednesday.
"Jesus obliges us to forgive our enemies. The 'Our Father' that we recite every day says that. "Does it not say 'Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us'?" "It's not possible to accept this prayer while holding on to rancour and cultivating hatred against our enemies," said the cardinal, in response to the news that bin Laden had been killed in a US commando raid in Pakistan.
"We are all sinners and we all need Christ's forgiveness," he said. It would have been better for the Americans to have captured bin Laden alive so that he could be put on trial, he added.
Vanhoye, a Jesuit priest, was made a cardinal in 2006 by Pope Benedict XVI in recognition of his scholarly work on the Bible.
The Vatican warned on Monday that no Christian should celebrate the death of the al Qaeda leader. » | Nick Squires | Wednesday, May 04, 2011
