Forgiveness (4)

Pope John Paul II on forgiveness and capital punishment

From a comment at Carrie Tomko's blog:

"If you want to know where [John Paul II] was coming from on this issue, see his thoughts on mercy in the encyclical Dives in Misericordia.

"The church has always placed capital punishment in the category of 'justice.' JPII remained within that tradition (Evangelium Vitae recognized its legitimacy, even while exhorting its limited use), while offering these thoughts in Dives in Misericordia, which certainly must have colored his understanding of the capital punishment issue:

Christ emphasizes so insistently the need to forgive others that when Peter asked Him how many times he should forgive his neighbor He answered with the symbolic number of "seventy times seven," meaning that he must be able to forgive everyone every time. It is obvious that such a generous requirement of forgiveness does not cancel out the objective requirements of justice. . . . CONTINUE Properly understood, justice constitutes, so to speak, the goal of forgiveness. In no passage of the Gospel message does forgiveness, or mercy as its source, mean indulgence towards evil, towards scandals, towards injury or insult. In any case, reparation for evil and scandal, compensation for injury, and satisfaction for insult are conditions for forgiveness.

Thus the fundamental structure of justice always enters into the sphere of mercy. Mercy, however, has the power to confer on justice a new content, which is expressed most simply and fully in forgiveness. Forgiveness, in fact, shows that, over and above the process of "compensation" and "truce" which is specific to justice, love is necessary, so that man may affirm himself as man. Fulfillment of the conditions of justice is especially indispensable in order that love may reveal its own nature. In analyzing the parable of the prodigal son, we have already called attention to the fact that he who forgives and he who is forgiven encounter one another at an essential point, namely the dignity or essential value of the person, a point which cannot be lost and the affirmation of which, or its rediscovery, is a source of the greatest joy. -DM, 14 (emphasis [commenter's])

"The entire encyclical is full of insight, and definitely worth a read. It puts into perspective the rationale why he would say in Evangeilum Vitae that capital punishment is legit, but that choosing to use it as little as possible would 'better correspond with the dignity of the human person.'"

Remarks: Broadly speaking this seems compatible with William Temple's concept of Christian forgiveness. Forgiveness does not abolish the need for restitution (at least in those cases where restitution is possible). One must ask, however, on what grounds the state can claim the right to forgive someone for an offence committed against some private person, as John Paul II seems to be suggesting it can, judging from these short excerpts. (Also, how does submitting to capital punishment amount to restitution, except in some purely symbolic way?)

See also Forgiveness (III).