Vatican City: United States Supreme Court Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. addressed the intricate relationship between justice and mercy in legal systems during a distinguished event at the Vatican on Saturday. The discussion, held at the Holy See’s judicial headquarters, formed part of the Jubilee of Justice, which is integrated into the Church’s broader yearlong Jubilee of Hope.
Earlier in the day, Alito, a practicing Catholic, had the opportunity to greet Pope Leo XIV during a special audience for the Jubilee of Workers of Justice in St. Peter’s Square. This personal encounter set the tone for a day dedicated to reflecting on the moral and human dimensions of law and governance.
The highlight of the event was a one-hour dialogue with Msgr. Laurence Spiteri, an American priest and retired judge of the Vatican’s appeals court for marriage cases. Justice Alito shared his insights on how legal systems can incorporate mercy alongside justice.
“Justice is what everyone has a right to, it is what they are due … Mercy is something that we don’t necessarily merit,” Alito explained. “The complete reconciliation of those two things, I think, is a mystery that we can only dimly, perhaps, perceive in this world.”
Alito emphasized that mercy should be considered within the framework of lawmaking. “The authority to make the laws rests with Congress, and Congress should build in mercy when it enacts laws,” he said. He further highlighted the executive branch’s role in enforcing laws with discretion, noting that officials should apply their authority with a degree of compassion whenever possible.
Judges, according to Alito, operate under the constraints of the law but sometimes have the opportunity to exercise mercy, particularly in areas like criminal sentencing. “A legal system, of course, is supposed to promote justice, and in human terms, completely reconciling mercy with justice is probably impossible. I think probably only God can do that,” he reflected.
The audience included high-ranking Vatican officials such as Cardinal Raymond Burke, former prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, secretary of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts. Also present were Catholic lawyers visiting Rome for the Jubilee of Justice, who witnessed the event in a historic chamber of the Cancelleria, a 16th-century building that houses the Vatican’s Apostolic Penitentiary, Apostolic Signatura, and Roman Rota tribunals.
Justice Alito’s address underscored the enduring tension and complementarity between justice and mercy. His remarks resonated with the Vatican’s ongoing efforts to integrate moral reflection with practical governance and offered a rare perspective from one of the United States’ highest judicial authorities on the universal human quest to balance fairness with compassion in law.