What happened to mercy?; The Washington Post, November 13, 2025

 Thomas Banchoff , The Washington Post; What happened to mercy?

"Decades ago, Pope John Paul II made a plea for mercy. His 1980 encyclical “Dives in Misericordia” (“Rich in Mercy”) emphasized God’s forgiving love toward humanity and decried a widespread tendency to “remove from the human heart the very idea of mercy.” Instead of mercy, John Paul saw a rise in “spite, hatred and even cruelty.”

Mercy is painfully scarce in our politics today. When the Right Rev. Mariann Budde, the Episcopal bishop of Washington, appealed to President Donald Trump from the pulpit in January to show mercy toward the vulnerable, the president bristled and demanded an apology. In the months since, his administration’s policies have been rife with cruelty, from eliminating life-giving aid programs abroad to threatening to withhold food assistance for more than 40 million Americans."

Obama Responds To Charlottesville Violence With A Quote From Nelson Mandela; Huff Post, August 12, 2017

Paige Lavender, Huff Post; Obama Responds To Charlottesville Violence With A Quote From Nelson Mandela

"Former President Barack Obama tweeted a quote from former South African President Nelson Mandela Saturday in an apparent response to the violence in Charlottesville, Virginia...

“No one is born hating another person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love. For love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite,” Obama tweeted.

The quote is from Mandela’s autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom. Obama’s series of tweets also featured a photo of him greeting children at a day care facility in Bethesda, Maryland, in 2011."

Prince William Appears on the Cover of Attitude, a Gay Magazine; New York Times, 6/15/16

Katie Williams, New York Times; Prince William Appears on the Cover of Attitude, a Gay Magazine:

"Ms. Chernock said that Diana understood that the news media could be used to bring awareness to her causes; she also knew that it could help keep the royal family relevant and fashion her image as a royal. When she chose to shake hands with an H.I.V.-positive man in 1987, she was credited with helping to shed light on a cause that had been shunned and ignored.

"That was a really huge turning point for her,” Ms. Chernock said, “and really did change a lot of the public attitude toward H.I.V. AIDS in particular, but as a consequence, the gay community more generally.”

Her sons have largely followed her blueprint. In March, Prince Harry made headlines when he spoke about the need for gender equality while on a visit to Nepal. But Prince William’s decision to allow himself to be photographed for a gay magazine, Ms. Chernock said, shows a royal “pushing the envelope further than we’ve seen before.”"