text: Raymond Cardinal Burke and Archbishop Chaput have NOT said that that balancing justice and mercy is an error, let alone an error of the Holy Father.
  
  What they have done is repeat the teaching of Jesus Himself, that God’s forgiveness is boundless and is freely given to those who repent, but not to those who refuse to repent.
  
  The notion of retributive justice underlies the teaching about Purgatory, that even when we have repented and been forgiven, we still owe the wages of our sin. In this world it means we should make whole those from whom we have stolen to the extent that we can, if we have killed a parent we should to the extent possible provide for that parent’s children, and so on. God is merciful, but God is just.
  
  In particular God is not Santa Claus.