Good sentences and bad sentences
Featured /articles

Por: P. Fernando Pascual, L.C | Fuente: Catholic.net

The judges dictate according to what they reach to understand in each case. Sometimes they get it right, sometimes they're wrong. 

That there are mistakes is part of the human experience. But in a mistake made by the judges, there is more or less serious damage, by convicting an innocent or acquitting a culprit. 

As these mistakes cannot be avoided, each judge is called to serious work to analyze well the cases that are presented to him and to find a way that allows him to punish the culprits and to help the victims.

When the sentences are good, the one who receives a righteous punishment can assume it in a way that allows him a regeneration, a way to recover his ethical life and to repair for the damages caused to others. 

At the same time, good sentences offer victims support, repairs, ways to overcome the damage received. The option of a magnanimous gesture with which to forgive the culprits is always open.

Instead, when a bad sentence punishes an innocent, then there is triple damage: in the innocent unjustly punished, in the culprit who remains unpunished, and in the victim who does not reach full reparation. 

Bad judgments originate from the complexity of some situations, due to the difficulty in obtaining sufficient evidence, by the ability of some more concerned lawyers to defend their clients than to achieve justice.

There are also bad sentences when a judge gets carried away by his passions, by his interests, or by fear of social media and the threats of criminal groups. 

in a world where it is so easy to be mistaken for lack of clarity or dishonest attitudes, bad sentences continue to cause damage that is difficult to repair. 

Sometimes the passage of time reveals errors of the past and allows them to alleviate those damages. But other times the present world seems closed to any path to authentic justice.

So, as Pope Benedict XVI explained, we need to wait in a judge, God, who, beyond human limits, reestablish after death that justice that we crave in the innermost part of our hearts. 

that God is fully righteous at the time of punishing those who die adhered to his injustice. And it is also merciful to those who repent of their wickedness and seek, already in this life, to mend for the damage caused to their victims.