Cardinal attacks US over Lockerbie bomber reaction

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O_Duirnin said:
Cardinal O’Brien didn’t say anything about the Americans being a vengeful people - he criticised the culture of vengeance in the US justice system.
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I haven’t seen his entire statement, but I think you are correct. The BBC article isn’t as clear about that as I would wish.

However, I do think that Cardinal O’Brien is basing his view, in part, on a caricatured understanding of the US justice system. He said: “In many states - more than half - they kill the perpetrators of horrible crimes, by lethal injection or even firing squad - I say that is a culture of vengeance.” And he said that is constituted a “conveyor belt of killing.”

I do not support the death penalty, but it isn’t used nearly as frequently as the cardinal suggests. Since the US Supreme Court declared it constitutional (in 1976), it has been used an average of 36 times per year. That rate is a great deal less than the rate of convictions for crimes which might merit the death penalty.

I oppose the death penalty. However, I do not believe that Cardinal O’Brien has a clear understanding of the judicial culture of the US (or how it plays out in real life) when it comes to such matters.
 
Dale_M said:
I haven’t seen his entire statement, but I think you are correct. The BBC article isn’t as clear about that as I would wish.

However, I do think that Cardinal O’Brien is basing his view, in part, on a caricatured understanding of the US justice system. He said: “In many states - more than half - they kill the perpetrators of horrible crimes, by lethal injection or even firing squad - I say that is a culture of vengeance.” And he said that is constituted a “conveyor belt of killing.”

I do not support the death penalty, but it isn’t used nearly as frequently as the cardinal suggests. Since the US Supreme Court declared it constitutional (in 1976), it has been used an average of 36 times per year. That rate is a great deal less than the rate of convictions for crimes which might merit the death penalty.

I oppose the death penalty. However, I do not believe that Cardinal O’Brien has a clear understanding of the judicial culture of the US (or how it plays out in real life) when it comes to such matters.
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Thank you for saying what I have been trying to say.
 
CathFaith1 said:
No one is right in remarks if they believe freedom after mass murder is justice. The death penalty may not be called for yet freedom is a sin against justice and charity.
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So, you oppose prisoners getting paroles?
 
No one can call, as does at least one prelate in the above quotes, capital punishment a “crime”. At least, it cannot constitute a crime per se; to maintain the opposite would be tantamount to calling God a criminal.

I sometimes wonder if people have ever read the Old Testament. Of course, when I consider the ‘notes’ in the New American Bible which basically accuse the Bible itself of being a fabrication, I’m not surprised.

Of course, as far as embarrassments go these days, this Scottish outburst is pretty low on the list.
 
Compassion: An introduction for Cardinal O’Brien (and Scottish Justice Secretary Kenneth MacAskill)

Why compassion would have kept al-Megrahi in prison.

Scots, as do we all, desire justice and want justice to be tempered by compassion and mercy.

Had compassionate heads prevailed, Scotland would have supported justice by honoring the just sentence of the court in this case, while providing the compassion and mercy so exemplified by the caring physicians, counselors and religious advisors that are part of our criminal justice system.

When a justice system considers the important role of compassion and mercy it can never be in the sole context of the guilty criminal, as was done with this release.

It was an insult to justice, compassion and mercy to minimize the gravity of the victims suffering - in this case, the 270 innocents murdered and the thousands who so loved them and suffer so much from the tragic, cruel taking of their cherished.

Just because God has chosen to serve a cancerous death sentence upon this murderer, that gave no foundation for early release based upon compassion. We all die. And, accordingly, we should not judge why God has chosen cancer as that route for this murderous, unrepentant man.

It was an insult to the 270 innocents murdered and the thousands of innocents so hurt by those deaths to condone the release of this criminal. Compassion and mercy must be upheld. And Scotland should have done so and would have, save for the decisions of an incompassionate few.

Only a cruel cynic would give more weight to compassion and mercy for an unrepentant mass murderer than to the justice for the innocents murdered and the compassion due those 270 murdered and their loved ones left behind.

And that is precisely what happened with al-Megrahi’s release.

Justice, compassion and mercy were all best served by this mass murderer remaining in prison. Both justice and compassion rule in Scotland. Something failed with al-Megrahi’s release.

May al-Megrahi repent.

Blessings to the innocent murdered and their bereaved loved ones.
 
Adeodatus said:
No one can call, as does at least one prelate in the above quotes, capital punishment a “crime”. At least, it cannot constitute a crime per se; to maintain the opposite would be tantamount to calling God a criminal.

I sometimes wonder if people have ever read the Old Testament. Of course, when I consider the ‘notes’ in the New American Bible which basically accuse the Bible itself of being a fabrication, I’m not surprised.

Of course, as far as embarrassments go these days, this Scottish outburst is pretty low on the list.
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What about the Old Testament?
 
dudleysharp said:
Compassion: An introduction for Cardinal O’Brien (and Scottish Justice Secretary Kenneth MacAskill)~~~Blessings to the innocent murdered and their bereaved loved ones.
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I appreciate your opinion. I myself don’t judge whether the Scottish Government made the right call; I simply uphold their right to make whatever call they chose. Which is a problem with a topic like this - there is no objectively right answer; it is all our personal opinions on what the disposition of the case should have been.
 
independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/christine-grahame-almegrahi-is-home-and-he-is-innocent-1776188.html

Here’s an interesting piece that was published in the British press about this time last year. Christine Grahame is a well-respected Scottish politician, and a firm advocate of the theory that Megrahi is innocent of the Lockerbie bombings. This theory is also supported by Dr Jim Swire, who lost his daughter aboard Pan Am 103, and Fr Patrick Keegan, the only person to survive on Sherwood Crescent in Lockerbie, where much of plane’s debris landed.
 
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