By: C. R.
Esteemed former President of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Borut Pahor, esteemed Director of the Study Centre for National Reconciliation, Dr Tomaž Ivešić, esteemed colleagues of SCNR, dear brothers and sisters!
- In remembering, filled with forgiveness, to renew the past, to thereby “process” it and make it a part of one’s own history.
Quite often, we hear the claim that only those who forget can truly forgive. However, it happens that because of a strong desire to forget, the memory of an old insult or wound is kept alive. The inability to forget is accompanied by feelings of guilt: a person feels guilty for not forgiving because they cannot forget. In Paris, a monument was erected to the French who were deported to German concentration camps. Above the portal is the inscription: “We forgive, but never forget!” Some may stumble upon this phrase. However, the true virtue of forgiveness is shown precisely when one also remembers. If one could forget, ultimately there would be no need to forgive, for there would no longer be a reason for it. But because the evil that happened is still fresh in their memory, they can forgive from the bottom of their heart. And this is the decisive point of forgiveness: it is not about forgetting, but about liberation from inner anger, resentment, and the desire for revenge, all of which eat away at every fibre of a person’s being. A person who does not forgive still lives in the “clutch of the victim”, remains a slave to the one who wronged them.
Forgiveness, in this sense, means renewing the past in memory, to “process” it and make it a part of one’s own history. In remembering past wrongs, a person radically changes their position, releasing and freeing themselves from negative emotions and thus dispelling them. The anger towards the one who committed the wrongdoing, which burdened the memory, dissolves, and a person can thus internally free themselves and begin a fuller life. This is possible because one begins to see in the other person more than just someone who has inflicted violence and injustice upon them. When I forgive, I differentiate between the person who caused me harm and the harm itself. I judge the other based on their value as a human being, who, like me, lives in an imperfect world marked by various conflicts.
In the creative act of remembering, I bring the person who wronged me before the eyes of my spirit, but at the same time, I go beyond this. I no longer see in them just the perpetrator of injustice but perceive them on a deeper level – on that level where, despite human weakness and limitations, they are a unique and valuable person just like me. In such a form of remembering, deeply imbued with forgiveness, I also understand and experience myself in a completely new way: not just as a victim or an offended person, but as someone who can rise above the injustice. Ultimately, forgiveness is an act of faith in the fundamental goodness and kindness of a person.
- Solidarity in memory. And things must be called by their proper names (Jančar)
Drago Jančar wrote in his work The Dark Side of the Moon that “the last great crime of totalitarianism was the indoctrination of entire generations of children and adolescents, which continues to this day. This is the indoctrination of the justification of violence.
Communism and its totalitarianism are history. That is how they must be treated… But for them to also become what they are in our consciousness, namely history, we must first recall them in their entirety in our memory. And when this happens, we will understand that we must not forget anything. Least of all the lives that this system destroyed or damaged. We must not, as in the recent past, fail once again in the test of human solidarity and surrender to indifference, even if it is only solidarity in memory. And things must be called by their proper names.
From the awareness of the delusions of communism and every totalitarianism, a clear consciousness of democracy also grows.” (Jančar D. 1998. The Dark Side of the Moon: A Brief History of Totalitarianism in Slovenia 1945-1990. Nova Revija, 850 pages, p. 9)
That is why nations with a particularly traumatic past, such as ours, have an important moral obligation. We must accept the memory of the horrific deviation of the 20th century as an inseparable part of our heritage. We must accept it as a powerful ethical warning. We will not be forgiven if we simply push this part of our history out of our consciousness—unexamined, unassessed—if we do not do so with a respectful burial of the victims and reconciliation among the living. With the change of generations, the wartime and postwar experiences will fade from the historical memory of Europeans, and with that, their powerful cathartic ethical message will be lost as well. This will be the last crime against the dead, an injustice committed by today’s generation of Slovenians—if they callously ignore the last, as the poet said, poignant cry of the dead from freshly discovered, decades-hidden mass graves. This callousness—an inhumane response—is contrary to the ancient foundations of morality, it is a mockery of justice. This callousness is also a kind of emotional mutilation, an undeserved punishment imposed on our children and future generations of Slovenians.
The eradication of compassion was the first step toward crime during the war and postwar period. Rediscovering and renewing compassion will be a step toward repentance and forgiveness. It will be a step toward true reconciliation. Therefore, compassion is redemptive. Empathy is a prerequisite for humanity. The hope that we will successfully cultivate tolerance, human rights, human dignity, and solidarity is empty without compassion. Without empathy, we will not have democracy (academic Trontelj).
- Democracy without values easily turns into totalitarianism or authoritarianism.
The success of the European project and democracy in Slovenia depends not only on economic integration and scientific and technological progress but also on the adoption of a set of fundamental rights and values such as human dignity, human rights, freedom, non-discrimination, the common good, subsidiarity, justice, tolerance, inclusion, solidarity, equality, and religious freedom, which support democracy and ensure its proper functioning.
Democracy without values easily turns into totalitarianism or authoritarianism. Today’s threats to democracy in Europe stem from the erosion of the shared values of the European project. The crisis or deficit of democracy is a consequence of a broader crisis of values. In the recent European elections, EU citizens expressed their concerns and views on how values are being realised in the European space; they responsibly cast their votes to promote higher standards of values to strengthen democracy. This civic awareness of participatory democracy is a guarantee and continuation of Europe as a community of values.
The values on which democracy is based have Christian roots. The Catholic Church, as an important stakeholder in European society, cannot remain indifferent to the upcoming democratic process, as it concerns the dignity of every European citizen, human rights, justice, solidarity, and subsidiarity. The Church values the democratic system because it ensures citizens’ participation in political decision-making, which demands accountability from those who govern to protect, safeguard, and implement the values without which genuine democracy would be weakened.
Let me conclude with the thoughts written by Archbishop Alojzij Šuštar in 1991: “There can be no progress without honest work in services, businesses, public life, and offices. Unfortunately, the work ethic has drastically declined. The lack of people who would think differently and educate differently than under the communist dictatorship is evident in all areas. We face a great and difficult task to achieve changes in education, personal thinking, and decision-making.” (Communio 1991, p. 201).
It seems that Archbishop Šuštar’s words are still very relevant today.