Observations on forgiveness and parole

Doug Grow of MinnPost has written about the release of Kathleen Soliah to parole in Saint Paul.  In the course of this, he has talked with Harry Flynn, the retired Catholic Archbishop of Saint Paul about the release of Kathleen Soliah and the idea of forgiveness.  [link] [link]

 

I have not been entirely comfortable with some who agree with me that Ms. Soliah, a California person, should serve California time in California.  I have suspected that the police organizations in both states would not have taken this position if police had not been the target of one of her crimes.  And I imagine that Pawlenty’s tepid request to Schwarzenegger was pure grandstanding.  [Yes, politicians do that.]

 

But as much as I think that Soliah’s parole should be served in California, I have never said that what she did was beyond forgiveness, either divine or personal.  I do not know Rep. Laura Brod and while at least one legislator/clergyperson has labeled her statement a call for “retribution,” I cannot guess the motive for her statement, but she noted,

"Forgiveness is a separate issue from where she serves her time.  …This case is different because it involves domestic terrorism and threats to law enforcement. Minnesota is not her home.  Minnesota is where she hid from justice."

 

Grow’s coverage of the matter shows a distinctive bend in favor of the parolee.  Eric Ostermeier, posting in Smart Politics, takes a distinctively different position.  He notes that Soliah’s crimes do not make her the “ordinary” parolee and suggests that her “exemplary” live while here seem less distinctive when one remembers that she was a fugitive the whole time.

Archbishop Flynn notes [per Grow]

Repentence is to look in a new direction. It is to hear with new ears, see with new eyes. … Has she repented? She certainly had taken on a different life [when she began a new life in St. Paul]. Has she made public statements [of remorse]?  I don't think so. But I don't think she'd do today what she did then

But, as the archbishop notes, forgiveness is a part of most traditions, that it does not require remorse, and forgiveness frees us.