“Vengeance Is Mine”, Saith the Lord

A few weeks ago, I received a chain email from a distant relative. It was about the James Boulger case. As it happens, the email is one of these zombie emails that constantly circulates throughout the internet refusing to die. While I did not realise that at the time, I did respond to my relative telling her that I did not think that vengeance was a good emotion to exercise, and that I would not be passing the email on, or responding to its exhortations in any way.

I was reminded of that example while reading the coverage of the publication of the report into child abuse within Catholic institutions in Ireland. The two things that leapt out at me were (a) the scale of the abuses against children in care and (b) the fact that the Catholic church cut a deal to limit the scale of the financial penalties against it and to prevent prosecution of the perpetrators of the abuse.

My initial reaction was to think “prosecute the bastards!”, but then I wondered whether I was simply seeking vengeance – something that I said was a bad idea in the Jamie Boulger case. On reflection, I don’t think that the two cases can be compared, and I am, in fact, seeking justice, not vengeance. It seems to me that not to bring the perpetrators to account for their crimes is an evil in itself. As A Thinking Man says in this very excellent post:

…the failure to name the perpetrators and bring them to justice, will do nothing but twist a brutal knife into a very painful wound.

I agree, but I see no recognition from the Catholic church of that fact. Instead they are closing ranks and siding with the perpetrators. Shame on them.