The Vatican is calling for reflection, not celebration, in the wake of the death al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the 9/11 terror attacks that killed more than 3,000.
U.S. President Barack Obama announced late Sunday night that a team of Navy SEALS assaulted the villa in which bin Laden was hiding, and killed him after a brief firefight. The world’s most wanted terrorist was living in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad, in northern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province.
Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the director of the Vatican press office, said in a statement issued today that “a Christian never takes pleasure from the fact of a man’s death.”
He noted that bin Laden “claimed responsibility for grave acts that spread division and hate among the peoples, manipulating religion to that end,” and added that his death is “an opportunity to reflect on each person’s responsibility, before God and humanity.”
Father Lombardi added that he hoped the event wouldn’t “become another occasion to disseminate hate, but rather to foster peace.”
According to the Pentagon, bin Laden’s body was thrown into the North Arabian Sea after following the traditional Islamic funeral rituals.
VATICAN CITY, MAY 2, 2011 (Zenit.org)