Cardinal's compassion

Good on Cardinal O'Brien for speaking out on the USA's attitude to Scotland over the decision to release Megrahi when it became clear he was dying of cancer. I met the Cardinal last week to update him and the First Minister on how Florence and Precious are doing. As we waited for the FM he was talking to me about how angry he was at America's attitude to this. And he said much of what eventually appeared in the article where he compared Scotlands "culture of compassion" to what he said was the USA's "culture of vengeance". We spoke about our opposition to the death penalty. For me it's just wrong and makes us, as a society, as bad as the people we dish it out to. For Cardinal O'Brien it's at odds with what the bible teaches. Having said that I bet I know some who study the bible and will tell me it says the opposite! I'm not particularly religious myself but I do know that Cardinal O'Brien is passionate in his opposition to a culture of vengeance. And he's right.