Hi Riana,
Your post spurred me to dig, what I found is interesting.
Much of this is surrounding Sadam Hussein.
Much more at the site, I posted parts.
http://ncronline.org/blogs/all-things-catholic/church-opposition-execution-practically-absolute
Church opposition to execution 'practically' absolute
by John L Allen Jr on Jan. 05, 2007
Church officials offered several motives for opposing the execution.
First, there's the principled argument that the right to life must always be upheld. This point was made in a Dec. 30 interview in Ansa, the Italian news agency, with Cardinal Renato Martino, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
"Man cannot simply dispose of life, and therefore it should be defended from the moment of conception to natural death," Martino said. "This position thus excludes abortion, experimentation on embryos, euthanasia and the death penalty, which are a negation of the transcendent dignity of the human person created in the image of God."
Note that Martino listed capital punishment on a par with key life issues long understood to admit of no exceptions.
Martino's comments echoed an appeal made in June by French Cardinal Paul Poupard, President of the Councils for Culture and for Inter-religious Dialogue, who asked that Hussein's life be spared on the grounds that "every person is a creature of God, and no one may regard himself or herself as owner of the life or death of another except the Creator."
....
Though Pope Benedict XVI did not specifically comment on the Hussein execution, he delivered a strong appeal for respect of human rights in his Dec. 31 homily in St. Peter's Basilica.
"Every human, without distinction of race, culture or religion, is created in the image and likeness of God, he is filled with the same dignity of person," the pope said.
Nowhere in Vatican commentary was there a concession that the church's position on the death penalty is not absolute, nor any indication that it's up to the secular authorities rather than religious leaders to make this sort of decision in concrete circumstances.
Instead, the tone was of clear moral condemnation, suggesting that as a practical matter, the execution of Hussein -- or of anyone in this day and age -- is unambiguously wrong.
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