Pope Francis: "Forgiveness is a Human Right" UPDATED

Pope Francis was recently interviewed on Italian television. An Italian account of the interview is here: Francesco: "Il perdono e un diritto umano", with an abridged English translation here: Pope Francis: "Forgiveness is a human right". The interview covered a wide range of issues, but two particular things stand out.

In tema di vicinanza, Fazio ricorda la nota frase del Papa: “Un uomo può guardare un altro uomo dall’alto in basso solo quando lo aiuta a rialzarsi”. Francesco approfondisce il concetto: “È vero – dice -. Nella società vediamo quante volte si guardano gli altri dall’alto in basso per dominarli, sottometterli, e non per aiutarli a rialzarsi. Pensa soltanto - è una storia triste, ma di tutti i giorni - a quegli impiegati che devono pagare col proprio corpo la stabilità lavorativa, perché il loro capo li guarda dall’alto in basso, ma per dominarli. È un esempio di tutti i giorni”. [On the theme of closeness, Fazio (the interviewer) recalled a well known expression of the Pope: "A man can look down on another man only when he helps him to rise up". Pope Francis deepened the concept: "It is true", he said, "In society we see how many times people look at down on others to dominate them, to subdue them, and not to help them to rise up. We think alone - it is a sad story, but happens every day - of those employees who have to pay with their own body for job security, because their manager looks down on them, but to dominate them. It happens every day".]

It was in response to a specific question of the interviewer that Pope Francis suggested that forgiveness is a human right, a suggestion at least in part determined by the wording of the question itself:

“C’è qualcuno che non merita il perdono e la misericordia di Dio o il perdono degli uomini?”, domanda il conduttore. “La capacità di essere perdonato è un diritto umano", replica il Pontefice dicendo che questa è "una cosa che forse farà scandalizzare qualcuno”. Tutti noi abbiamo il diritto di essere perdonati se chiediamo perdono. È un diritto che nasce proprio dalla natura di Dio ed è stato dato in eredità agli uomini. Noi abbiamo dimenticato che qualcuno che chiede perdono ha il diritto di essere perdonato. Tu hai fatto qualcosa, lo paghi. No! Hai il diritto di essere perdonato, e se poi tu hai qualche debito con la società arrangiati per pagarlo, ma con il perdono”. ["Is there anyone who does not deserve the forgiveness and the mercy of God or the forgiveness of mankind?", asked the interviewer. " The ability to be forgiven is a human right", replied the Pope saying that this is "something that perhaps will shock some people". We all have the right to be forgiven if we ask for forgiveness. It is a right that is born itself from the nature of God and is bequeathed to mankind. We have forgotten that someone who asks for forgiveness has the right to be forgiven. You have done something, you must pay for it. No! You have the right to be forgiven, and if then you have some debt with society, arrange to pay it, but with forgiveness".]

Though it does appear to be well known, this is the first time that I recall encountering Pope Francis' remark about looking down on someone only to raise them up. It strikes me as a particularly Pope Francis expression.

As far as the suggestion that there is a human right for people to be forgiven if they ask for forgiveness is concerned, I have three observations. Firstly, if Pope Francis' remarks are read in full, it should be clear that he is not suggesting that forgiveness should replace the provisions of justice in, for example, a legal judgement. He is suggesting, I think, that forgiveness is exercised in parallel to the workings of justice. This seems to indicate some precedent for Pope Francis' remarks in the principles underpinning the practice of restorative justice.

Secondly, there is something that Pope Francis does not appear to explore in his remarks. As a mirror to a right of someone to be forgiven is a duty of another person to offer that forgiveness. But in tragic circumstances, it can be very difficult for an aggrieved party to reach the point where they are able to forgive. It does not really belong to others to forgive on the behalf of the aggrieved party, which means that a person who is seen as having a right to forgiveness may not in practice be able to benefit from that right. But there is a subtlety in some of Pope Francis' words that has been lost between the text as reported on the Vatican News site and the headline that the same site uses (true in all three of the languages that I am able to read). The text quotes Pope Francis, presumably verbatim, as speaking initially of a "capacity to be forgiven" as being a human right, before going on to speak more directly of a right to be forgiven.

Perhaps not unrelated to this difficulty is my third observation. I think Pope Francis is suggesting that the right to be forgiven, or at least the "capacity to be forgiven", has in some way been established by God "in the beginning" as a part of what it means to be a human society. From a theological point of view, we can perhaps see this right, or capacity, being restored to its original integrity in the salvific work of Jesus Christ, and the Church therefore having a particular mission in favour of forgiveness in the world. 

There are perhaps a couple of precedents in Pope Francis' ministry that act as a source for his response in this interview. In 2014, he wrote a letter to a meeting of two associations of penal lawyers. The letter identifies three elements of Christian tradition with regard to justice:

From the very earliest Christian times, the disciples of Jesus have sought to confront the fragility of the human heart, so often weak. In different ways and with various initiatives, they have accompanied and supported those who are buckling under the weight of sin and evil. Despite the historical changes, three elements have been consistent: reparation or compensation for the injury caused; confession, through which man expresses his own internal conversion; and contrition in order to reach the encounter with God’s merciful and healing love.

 Towards the end of his letter, Pope Francis writes:

The manner of God, who is there even before the human sinner, waiting and offering him his forgiveness, thus reveals a higher justice which is, at the same time impartial and compassionate, without contradiction in these two aspects. Forgiveness, in fact, neither eliminates nor diminishes the need for correction, precisely that of justice, nor does it overlook the need for personal conversion, instead it goes further, seeking to reestablish relationships and reintegrate people into society. To me, this seems to be the great challenge that we all must face together, so that the measures adopted against evil are not satisfied by restraining, dissuading and isolating the many who have caused it, but also helps them to reflect, to travel the paths of good, to be authentic persons who, removed from their own hardships, become merciful themselves. The Church, therefore, proposes a humanizing, genuinely reconciling justice, a justice that leads the criminal, through educational development and brave atonement, to rehabilitation and reintegration into the community.

Implicit in this notion of a "reconciling justice" is the need, or perhaps a "right", for the criminal to have access to forgiveness on the part of wider society.

The Year of Mercy celebrated by the Church also provides a background to Pope Francis' suggestion of a type of right to forgiveness. A passage from the Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera that closed that Year offers an almost exact precedent for Pope Francis' answer to the question he was asked in this interview (my italics added):

... lest any obstacle arise between the request for reconciliation and God’s forgiveness, I henceforth grant to all priests, in virtue of their ministry, the faculty to absolve those who have committed the sin of procured abortion. The provision I had made in this regard, limited to the duration of the Extraordinary Holy Year,[14] is hereby extended, notwithstanding anything to the contrary. I wish to restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life. In the same way, however, I can and must state that there is no sin that God’s mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father. May every priest, therefore, be a guide, support and comfort to penitents on this journey of special reconciliation.

 There is a hint here, too, of the idea that the seeking of forgiveness should readily meet with the granting of that forgiveness. In his interview, Pope Francis seems to wish to extend this idea from the field of the sacramental economy to the world at large.