Catholic church to pray for Osama bin Laden

Image via Wikipedia

Oscar Wilde said, "Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much." The Holy Name of Jesus Catholic Church in West Palm Beach in Florida seems to have this advice to heart. A parishioner, Henry Borga, paid ten dollars to have Osama bin Laden's name added to the service."I'm asking for forgiveness, mercy and compassion for that miserable criminal," he said. The pastor is honouring the request, to the dismay of many church members.

"Their hearts are troubled because they're thinking emotionally about what he has done, and he has done a lot of evil," Father Gavin Badway, the church's pastor told WPTV. "Nevertheless, Jesus tells us, love and forgive."

"I just don't think it's right, I really don't," Louis Pizzano Sr. told MSNBC. "I think what's happened to the American people, what he's done, what he was planning to do and because we killed him, it doesn't stop there."

The Osama prayer appears to have some support in the prayer circle. Parishioner Vince Stankey was somewhat forgiving: "The way he was trying to prove his god to do killing, I can't approve of that, but I have mercy on his soul and I have to pray for him."

Borga admits to being worried about his family's safety since he made the prayer request.