I have spoken previously about the tendency to say sorry, which has now gone too far, and I used George W. Bush’s repentance over Iraq as an example. To do something that ought not to be done and then simply to say sorry is not enough. For a start, you have to promise not to do it again. Bush won’t invade Iraq a second time because the Americans have relieved him of responsibility, but perhaps he would do it again if he could. Many who throw stones and then hide their hands say sorry precisely so they can do it again. Saying sorry costs nothing.
It’s rather like the story of criminals who repent. Once upon a time, people who repented for their wrongdoing first made amends in some way, then they devoted their lives to penance, took refuge in the Thebaid and beat their breast with sharp stones, or cared for lepers in Africa. A person who repents today confines himself to giving evidence against his ex-accomplices, then keeps careful guard over his new identity in a comfortable secret location, or gets early release from prison and writes his memoirs, gives interviews, meets heads of state, and receives romantic love letters from young girls.
On the Internet there’s a whole website dedicated to “phrases for saying sorry.” The most lapidary is Sorry, I’m Clearly a Perfect Shit. Another site, called The Art of Saying Sorry, is only for lovers who have been unfaithful, and offers this advice: “The important and universal rule is never to feel yourself a loser when you say sorry. Saying sorry is not synonymous with weakness but with control and strength, it means returning straightway to the side of right, wrong-footing the partner who is forced to listen. Admitting your own errors is also a gesture of liberation: it helps to bring emotions out into the open without repressing them, and to experience them more intensely.” As if to say: sorry means summoning the strength to start all over again.
If the person who has done wrong is still alive, he apologizes in person. But if he’s dead? Pope John Paul II pointed the way when he said sorry for the trial against Galileo. Even if the wrong had been committed by one of his predecessors, it is the legitimate successor who says sorry. But it’s not always clear who the legitimate successor is. For example, who should apologize for the Slaughter of the Innocents? The wrongdoer was Herod, governor of Jerusalem; therefore his only legitimate successor is the Israeli government. Whereas responsibility for the death of Jesus, contrary to what Saint Paul led us to believe, lies not with the wicked Jews but with the Roman government. Those at the foot of the cross were centurions and not Pharisees. Once the Holy Roman Empire had gone, the sole surviving heir of the Roman government is the Italian state, so our president, Giorgio Napolitano, should be the one to apologize for the crucifixion.
Who says sorry for the Vietnam War? It’s unclear whether this should be the next president of the United States or a member of the Kennedy family. For the Russian Revolution and the murder of the Romanovs, there’s no doubt, since the only true and legitimate heir of Leninism and Stalinism is Vladimir Putin. And for the St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre? It’s the French Republic, as successor to the monarchy, but since the brains behind the whole business was a queen, Catherine de’ Medici, the task of saying sorry today ought to be performed by Carla Bruni.
There would then be some rather awkward cases. Who would say sorry for the mess caused by Ptolemy, the man truly responsible for the case against Galileo? If, as some say, he was born at Ptolemais, which is part of modern Libya, the person saying sorry should be Muammar Gaddafi, but if Ptolemy was born in Alexandria, then it should be the Egyptian government. Who says sorry for the extermination camps? The sole heirs of Nazism are the neo-Nazi movements, and they don’t look as if they want to say sorry. On the contrary, they’d do it again if they could.
And who in Italy would say sorry for the assassination of socialists like Giacomo Matteotti and the Rosselli brothers during the Fascist period?
2008