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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.
Victim’s Widow Forgives, Tries to Stop Killer’s Execution
Philadelphia, The Inquirer – With less than a month before condemned murderer Terrance Williams is scheduled to die by lethal injection, a broad-based group of supporters – including the widow of the man Williams killed in 1984 – urged that his life be spared for a crime committed three months after he turned 18, the minimum age for someone to be sentenced to death in the United States.
The advocacy group includes lawyers and former judges, child advocates, and religious figures but Williams’ strongest asset may be an extraordinary affidavit by his victim’s widow. Mamie Norwood, 75, describes a personal transformation from anger and resentment to forgiveness.
At first, Norwood wrote, her husband’s murder was “unbearable for me. [But] several years ago, after much prayer and self-reflection, I found the strength and courage to forgive Terry Williams.
“I do not wish to see Terry Williams executed,” Norwood wrote. “His execution would go against my Christian faith and my belief system. He is worthy of forgiveness, and I am at peace with my decision to forgive him and have been for many years. I wish to see his life spared.”
Five members of the Philadelphia Common Pleas Court jury that condemned Williams for the murder of Amos Norwood have said they would have opted for life in prison had they heard mitigating evidence about Williams’ horrific childhood of sexual abuse by a neighbor, a teacher, and Norwood himself.
“The evidence of abuse in this case is clear,” reads a letter of support signed by 26 child advocates and experts in sexual abuse. “There can be no doubt that Terry was repeatedly and violently abused and exploited as a child and teenager by manipulative older men.
“Terry’s acts of violence have, alas, an explanation of the worst sort: enveloped by anger and self-hatred, Terry lashed out and killed two of the men who sexually abused him and caused him so much pain.”
Read more about Norwood’s act of forgiveness.
Mother of Teen Killed in Jet Ski Collision Offers Forgiveness
Honolulu, HawiiNewsNow.com – A California mother who’s 16-year-old daughter was killed in a jet ski collision is offering forgiveness to the Australian tourist who slammed into her daughter’s jet ski last month.
The teenager died of a brain injury a day after the collision. Her grieving mother said she has forgiven the 20-year-old Australian for causing her family so much pain.
“Because that’s the kind of daughter my daughter was, a very forgiving child and so I know that’s something she would want me to do,” said a tearful Evangelina Canton.
Tyson Dagley, 20, will be sentenced for negligent homicide on Wednesday as Kristen Fonseca’s family struggles to move on.
“I cry in the morning. I cry before I go to sleep. I cry randomly during the day,” said Fonseca’s mother, Evangelina Canton.
Canton’s heart is aching. Fonseca, 16, was riding a rented jet ski last month during a family vacation. The young visitor from Vacaville, Calif. had slowed down her Yamaha WaveRunner, but behind her, Dagley wasn’t looking ahead.
Read more about the mother’s forgiveness.
