‘Libyans must look to the future’ – Holy See

While Catholic leaders in Libya have said they could not rejoice at the death of their country’s dictator Muammar Gaddafi last week they have advised Libyans to remember his brutality and look to the future.

Pope Benedict XVI has said that the Church will continue to pledge its support to the country in the wake of Colonel Gaddafi’s death.

Future hopes

Following the capture and killing of Colonel Gaddafi last Thursday, Archbishop Tommaso Caputo, apostolic nuncio to Libya and Malta, said that, in four years of traveling in Libya, he had witnessed a thirst for ‘peace and harmony.’

“I have come to believe that the Libyan heart is nourished by the desire of peace and harmony,” Archbishop Caputo said. “This is what we hope for the future.”

Habib Malik, a Lebanese Catholic and associate professor of history at the Lebanese American University commented that, although a gruesome end was inevitable for the dictator, it is not something to rejoice about.

“Gaddafi brutalised people for 42 years,” Mr Malik said. “He lived by the sword and, therefore, it’s not surprising that he would die by the sword. The manner of his death was gruesome and, no matter how evil a person might have been, such an ending is never something to rejoice about; however he is now dead and his people are justifiably relieved and hopeful about starting a new chapter in their history.”

Papal call for reflection

In a statement released following Colonel Gaddafi’s death last week, Pope Benedict XVI said that the Vatican calls for reflection and that news of the death ‘marks the end of a much too long and tragic phase of a brutal struggle to bring down a harsh and oppressive regime.’

“This dramatic event obliges us yet again to reflect on the immense toll of human suffering which accompanies the affirmation and collapse of any system which is not based on the respect and dignity of the human person, but rather on the prevailing affirmation of power,” the Holy Father said. “It is hoped now that the Libyan people might be spared further violence due to a spirit of revenge, and that the new leaders can undertake as soon as possible efforts necessary for bringing peace and rebuilding in a spirit of solidarity, based on justice and the rule of law.”

The Pope also expressed his wish that the international community may ‘also be committed to generously helping in the rebuilding of the nation.’

“The Holy See will assist the Libyan people with the instruments available to it in the field of international relations with a spirit of promoting justice and peace,” he added.

Cardinal Peter Turkson, head of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, said that it was not clear where the ‘Arab spring’ would lead and whether it would help the minority Christian populations of the area.

“We hope the rediscovery of freedom in these months is not only freedom from certain leaders, but freedom for everyone, including religious freedom for all communities,” he said.