Reading Johann Hari’s apology in the Independent – something that has been much raked over online – I was struck by one phrase. He writes:
“So first, even though I stand by the articles which won the George Orwell Prize, I am returning it as an act of contrition for the errors I made elsewhere, in my interviews.”
The words “act of contrition” are associated with the sacrament of penance. Mr Hari, who has been, and for all I know still is, a vociferous critic of the Catholic Church, has nevertheless used a phrase that comes from the lexicon of an institution that he does not love. How odd is that? And I wonder if he knows what is meant by contrition? Contrition itself means sorrow for sin: not just for the effect of your sin, but for the sin itself. So, a person who is contrite is one who hates the action he has committed because that action displeases God and offends his goodness; he is not just sorry because he has been found out, or because he has discovered that the bad action has rebounded on himself. In this case, if Mr Hari is contrite it means that, for example, he deeply regrets making false accusations about Cristina Odone online, simply because he now knows that to tell lies about someone in a public forum is in itself a bad and wicked thing to do. Contrition, it has to be said, is a somewhat rare state. Most people feel what is called attrition: this means they are sorry they have done wrong because the results of their action have brought them to a state of regret. Thus, if Mr Hari feels attrition with regard to Ms Odone, then that would be because he realises that his actions have had a detrimental effect on his reputation and his professional standing. Who knows which camp Mr Hari fits into? Most people are found in the second category. We tend not to hate our sins, but rather we tend to be embarrassed by them, which is not the same thing. Hence the stipulation in the sacrament of penance (which most people still refer to as Confession) of making an act of contrition. This is essentially a form of words, and may be like this example, from EWTN’s website:
