The Jesuit Centre for Faith and Justice works to combat injustice and marginalisation in Irish society, through social analysis, education and advocacy. The Centre highlights complex social issues, informs opinion and advocates for governmental policy change to create a fair and equitable society for all.
Part of the way we do this is by offering a free annual lecture on a theologically rooted subject of our research.
This year, on April 21st, at 7pm, we have the pleasure of welcoming Prof. Dr Pieter Witte, prison chaplain and visiting professor at the Chair for Detention, Meaning, and Society at KU Leuven in Belgium. He will draw our attention to a part of the world we so often out behind bars and ignore.
It promises to be a stimulating event as we consider the role of punishment and the place of prison in society. This is particularly timely as Irish prisons are deeply overcrowded with almost 600 men and women sleeping on the floor each night. Over 300 psychiatric patients languish in prisons with no treatment. Yet, the Government’s solution is to build yet more prisons. It is appropriate to ask how much punishment is enough in our society.
In his lecture, Pieter De Witte will address the crisis in our penal systems from a political- philosophical and theological perspective. Starting from Christ’s prayer to forgive his executioners because “they know not what they do,” he will turn to the work of Hannah Arendt on forgiveness, showing how a politically sound response to wrongdoing involves recognising not-knowing on the part of both the offender and the punishing authority. In a second part, the Christian (Augustinian) idea of community will be highlighted as centered around a “mystery,” once again something that withdraws from the field of knowledge and
control. In the final part, lessons will be drawn from these reflections on forgiveness and community for the way we organise our penal systems. He will argue that a reductionist vision of criminal justice must take this not-knowing into account, and he will elaborate on this idea in terms of punishment as retribution and as ritual.
We look forward to welcoming you to 54-72 Gardiner Street Upper, Mountjoy, Dublin 1, D01 TX23. People can register by emailing info@jcfj.ie