(Adds background, Church teaching on capital punishment) By Philip Pullella VATICAN CITY, Dec 30 (Reuters) - The Vatican on Saturday condemned the execution of Saddam Hussein as a "tragic" event and warned that it risked fomenting a spirit of vendetta and sowing fresh violence in Iraq. "A capital punishment is always tragic news, a reason for sadness, even if it deals with a person who was guilty of grave crimes," said Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. "The position of the Church (against capital punishment) has been restated often," he said. The Catholic Church teaches that capital punishment today is unjustifiable because modern society has developed ways of protecting society from further crimes by the guilty party and that because only God can end a life. "The killing of the guilty party is not the way to reconstruct justice and reconcile society. On the contrary, there is a risk that it will feed a spirit of vendetta and sow new violence," he said. The Vatican, which opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, said Saddam's execution would likely worsen the situation on the ground. "In these dark times for the Iraqi people, one can only hope that all responsible parties truly make every effort so that glimmers of reconciliation and peace can be found in such a dramatic situation." Saddam was hanged for crimes against humanity in Baghdad at dawn, a dramatic, violent end for a leader who ruled Iraq by fear for three decades before he was toppled by a U.S. invasion four years ago. The war in Iraq was the cause for one of the biggest rifts between the Vatican and the United States government. In the build-up to the invasion in 2003, the late Pope John Paul sent senior cardinals to U.S. President George W. Bush urging him not to invade and to Saddam urging him to abide by international resolutions. Relations worsened after Saddam was captured in 2003, when the Pope's justice minister, Cardinal Renato Martino, criticised the United States military for treating the former Iraqi leader "like a cow".
