"Once I was trying to explain amnesty to a group of Californian judges who were asking us why alternative procedures did not work in our country. They understood complex issues, but when we explained that amnesty is a law that forgives everyone, they were convinced that we were joking. You see, Carl Schmitt argued that all concepts of modern European public law are secularized theological concepts. The secularization of plenary indulgence gives rise to amnesty, pardon, and various forms of remission. With one difference: the Church demands repentance, the state does not."