Scottish Catholic Observer

CARDINAL Keith O’Brien has said Americans have no right to question Scotland’s justice system over the release of the Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi.

Writing in an article for a Sunday newspaper the cardinal said there was a ‘clash of cultures’ between Scotland’s compassion and the American thirst for vengeance.

“In Scotland over many years we have cultivated through our justice system what I hope can be described as a ‘culture of compassion,’” he said. “On the other hand, there still exists in many parts of the US, if not nationally, an attitude towards the concept of justice which can only be described as a ‘culture of vengeance.’”

Response

The cardinal said he was moved to write in response to recent attempts by the Foreign Relations Committee of the US Senate to summon Scotland’s First Minister Alex Salmond, justice secretary Kenny MacAskill and the former UK home secretary Jack Straw to a hearing in Washington.

In Scotland over many years we have cultivated through our justice system what I hope can be described as a ‘culture of compassion. On the other hand, there still exists in many parts of the US, if not nationally, an attitude towards the concept of justice which can only be described as a ‘culture of vengeance.’

His Eminence said that like First Minister Alex Salmond, he believed Scottish ministers are only ‘accountable to the Scottish Parliament and ultimately the Scottish people alone.’

Though the cardinal stressed that the murder of 270 people on board Pan Am flight 103 and in the town of Lockerbie on December 21, 1988 was an act of unbelievable ‘horror and gratuitous barbarity,’ vengeance was not the answer.

“It is in the midst of such inhuman barbarism, however, that we must act to affirm our own humanity. It is in these moments of grief and despair that we must show the world that the standards of the murderer and his disdain for human life are not our standards,” he said. “They may plunge to the depths of human conduct but we will not follow them.”

Capital punishment

Cardinal O’Brien also said that he believed the frequency with which the US employed capital punishment made it difficult for that country to judge Scotland.

“Since 1976, 1221 people have been executed in the US,” he said. “Its execution rate is only outdone by Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Iran and China. These are not countries known for placing human rights on a pedestal.

“It is certainly invidious company for the world’s leading democracy to find itself in. Perhaps the consciences of some Americans, especially members of the US Senate, should be stirred by the ways in which ‘justice’ is administered in so many of their own states. Perhaps it is time for them to ‘cast out the beam from their own eye before seeking the mote in their brothers.’

“Perhaps they should direct their gaze inwards, rather than scrutinising the workings of the Scottish justice system.”

Ultimate justice, declared the cardinal, could only be delivered by God.

“I believe that only God can forgive and show ultimate compassion to those who commit terrible crimes and I would rather live in a country where justice is tempered by mercy than exist in one where vengeance and retribution are the norm,” he said.

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