Forgiveness News
Forgiveness Therapy for Battered Women in Pakistan
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A recent study led by Sana Nisar of the Government College University, Lahore, Pakistan found that a forgiveness intervention for 15 sessions, done one-on-one with the intervener, was effective. Following the intervention, those in the forgiveness condition, relative to those in the control group, had significant decreases in depression, anxiety, and anger and significant increases in forgiveness and hope relative to those in the control group. The reference to this work is this:
Nisar, S., Yu, L., Ifikhar, R., & Enright, R.D. (2025). Forgiveness therapy to build hope and reduce anxiety and depression in battered women in Pakistan. Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy.doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/cpp.70089
Reader’s Digest Presents 10 Powerful Stories of Forgiveness
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On June 9, 2025, Reader’s Digest published 10 heart-warming stories of people who have forgiven others for deep injustices. As one example, entitled The Unexpected Caregiver, Pascale Kavanagh, a survivor of domestic abuse, stated that she never imagined reconnecting with her abuser, her mother, in her adult life. Her mother, however, had multiple strokes, preventing her from speaking or caring for herself. Kavanagh started reading to her mother beside her bedside. Kavanagh reports that her hatred for her mother turned into forgiveness and love as she took care of her on a daily basis.
A Hug for a Murderer?
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As reported in El Paso Matters (https://elpasomatters.org/2025/04/22/victims-sister-hugs-walmart-gunman-patrick-crusius-el-paso/) on April 23, 2025, Yolanda Tinajero lost her brother to murder by Patrick Crusius in 2019. When allowed to speak in court, she faced Mr. Crusius and said, “I feel in my heart to hug you very tight so you could feel my forgiveness, especially my loss. But I know it’s not allowed. I want you to see and feel all of us who have been impacted by your actions that has brought us all closer with God’s love, which shows you that this great city of El Paso is a very forgiving place to dwell in.” When the judge allowed it, she hugged the defendant as the judge wept.
July 17 Marks a Day of Forgiveness in the Face of Cruel Execution Over 230 Years Ago
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On July 17, 1794, and as part of the French Revolution, 16 Carmelite nuns were martyred at the guillotine in Paris. As she was facing death, one of the sisters, Sister Mary of Jesus Crucified, proclaimed, “I forgive you, my friends. I forgive you with all that longing of heart with which I would that God forgive me!” All of the sisters now are known as the Martyrs of Compiègne. Pope St. Pius X beatified all of these heroic sisters on May 27, 1906.
Wall Street Journal Writer Suggests that Revenge Can Be Addictive and There Is One Best Cure for It
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On June 5, in the Wall Street Journal, James Kimmel Jr. reports on how he was bullied as a child, which led to him becoming an “aggressive attorney” as an adult. He realized that whenever he sought revenge or even imagined getting revenge, he felt better. As he researched the neuroscience of revenge, he discovered that the brain releases dopamine, a neurotransmitter associated with feelings of pleasure and reward. This feel-good sensation kept him seeking or fantasizing about revenge until he decided to stop the cycle of revenge, dopamine, feel-good, and more revenge to release the dopamine. In his quest to break the cycle, he discovered that forgiveness is a means to halt the cycle of revenge, which in turn eliminates the need for more dopamine, thereby reinforcing the need for revenge. Forgiveness was the cure for him.
More on this story can be found here: https://www.newser.com/story/369842/revenge-is-like-an-addiction.html.
