"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.
"A Christian should never rejoice" over the death of a human being, said Federico Lombardi, the Vatican's spokesman, although bin Laden would have to answer to God for ordering the killing of so many people.
"Osama bin Laden, as everyone knows, had the grave responsibility of having spread division and hate among people, causing the deaths of an innumerable number of people and exploiting religion for these purposes," Father Lombardi said.
He said the Vatican hoped that the death of bin Laden "would not be an occasion for more hate, but for peace".
An MP in Silvio Berlusconi's ruling People of Freedom party said the killing of bin Laden by American Navy Seals could be interpreted as the first miracle performed by the late Pope John Paul II after his beatification at St Peter's on Sunday.
"The elimination by American forces of the sheikh of terror Osama bin Laden the day after the beatification of John Paul could be seen as a huge miracle, a gift from the beloved Pope, who often condemned the network of terror, warning that 'where there is evil there is always good,'" said Michaela Biancofiore, a member of a parliamentary committee on foreign affairs.
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