Forgiveness News
After 60-Year Sentence, Murderer Asks Forgiveness from Victim’s Son
Sacramento Bee (California) – While being led away to serve a 60-year sentence for murder, the convicted man, Sergio Gomez, turned to the murdered man’s son and asked him for forgiveness. The son, Alejandro Davila, embraced Mr. Gomez and wished him the best, adding, “someday I’ll be able to forgive him.”
It looks from here that Mr. Davila already is well along the path of forgiveness.
Read the full story: “South Texas man asks victim’s son for forgiveness”
Forgiving the Person Who Murdered His Only Son
The Huffington Post – Investment banker Azim Khamisa’s only son, Tariq, was shot and killed in 1995 by a 14-year-old gang member while Tariq was at work delivering a pizza in La Jolla, CA. Khamisa became so distraught that at one point he was suicidal.
But then, after much soul-searching, Khamisa did something most people would consider impossible. He reached out to the family of the young shooter by offering forgiveness and compassion.
“Forgiveness is not well understood in our culture,” Khamisa says. “But I have a better life because I forgived. I came to realize that resentment is very corrosive. If you’re out there carrying resentment, you’re not going to be living at 100 percent of your capacity.”
Read the full story: “Could You Forgive Someone Who Murdered Your Only Son?”
Pope Benedict XVI Calls for Middle East Peace Through Forgiveness
Manila Bulletin, Beirut, Lebanon – Pope Benedict XVI said Saturday that mankind should reject vengeance and instead pardon the offenses of others, as he urged the Middle East’s Christians and Muslims to forge a harmonious society through forgiveness.
Those who desire to live in peace must have a change of heart, and that involves “rejecting revenge, acknowledging one’s faults, accepting apologies without demanding them and, not least, forgiveness,” he said.
Pope Benedict XVI, on a three-day visit to Lebanon, met with and spoke to the country’s political and religious leaders as well as the diplomatic corps. His address focused on the universal yearning of humanity for peace and how that can only come about through community, comprised of individual persons, whose aspirations and rights to a fulfilling life must be respected.
Lebanon is a multi-faith country in which Muslims make up about 65 percent of the population and Christians the balance. The pope came to bring a message of peace and reconciliation to it and to the wider Middle East, which have been torn by violence, often sectarian, over the years.
“Only forgiveness, given and received, can lay lasting foundations for reconciliation and universal peace,” he added in an address on the second day of his three-day visit to Lebanon.
Read the full story: Pope: Reject Vengeance, Forgive Offenses.
Thirteen Days Before Her First Birthday, Girl Killed, Parents Forgive
The Kansas City Star – 11-month old Autumn Nicole Humphrey, while being held by her grandfather, was struck by the out-of-control car of an 88-year-old driver and she was killed. As the Rev. Tiger Pennington prepared to conduct her funeral, he heard something that restored his strength–and moved him to tears.
Autumn Humphrey’s parents asked to meet with the 88-year-old man who was driving the car.
Then they forgave him, Pennington told reporters Saturday outside the First Baptist Church of North Kansas City, and they asked him to sit with the family during the service.
Read more about this extraordinary act of forgiveness: Forgiveness flows at girl’s funeral after church accident.
Family Forgives Man Who Allegedly Shot the One Who Sought Community Peace
WMBB.com, Panama City, FL. The Gant family today mourned the loss of Everett, a husband and father of one child, who passed away on Monday from a gunshot wound. In July, Everett approached the home of a man who allegedly used racial slurs. Everett’s intention was to help–specifically to talk with the man in the hope of ending his statements which hurt many in the community. The man allegedly shot Everett, who lost his battle for life on September 17.
Everett’s uncle, Cas Gant, told a News 13 reporter that as the family mourns, it also forgives. “We forgive as a family. That’s just who we are. We’ve had this discussion many times, but in the midst of that discussion, we forgive.”
On July 30th, Everett Gant approached the apartment of 59 year old Walton Butler in the Pine Ridge Complex of Port St. Joe, FL, to discuss racial slurs Butler allegedly made to children in the community.
It would be Gant’s final act of bravery. He was shot at the apartment and died from that gunshot wound on Monday.
In the months since the shooting, many have asked why Everett Gant confronted Butler. According to Cas Gant, Everett’s uncle, it’s just who his nephew was.
“That’s who he was. To know that he was going to help, that he spent his whole life doing that…we wouldn’t expect anything else,” said Gant.
Read more about the family’s act of forgiveness: Remembering Everett: Gant Family Honors Life, Discusses Forgiveness.
