News
Dr. Enright Featured in Diocese of Madison Catholic Herald Article
“We believe that forgiveness is a choice,” Dr. Robert Enright is quoted in the June 7 issue of the Madison Catholic Herald. “If you have been deeply hurt by another, you can choose to forgive rather than hold on to debilitating anger and resentment. In doing so, an amazing transformation begins.”
The founder of the International Forgiveness Institute, Dr. Enright, further explains, “When you forgive, you may benefit the person you forgive. But you benefit yourself far more. By liberating yourself from pain and sorrow, you can reclaim your life and find the peace that your anger had stolen.”
According to the article, Dr. Enright believes his new book, The Forgiving Life: A Pathway to Overcoming Resentment and Creating a Legacy of Love, is the “best work I’ve ever done.”
He is also beginning work on another book, The Church as Forgiving Community, to be published by Our Sunday Visitor. Cardinal Raymond Burke (Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura in Rome who previously served as Archbishop of St. Louis, MO, and Bishop of La Crosse, WI) will be writing a chapter for this book, as will Bishop Robert C. Morlino of Madison, WI, and Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland, CA.
Rwandan Bishop Calls for Forgiveness Regarding Tutsi Genocide
AllAfrica.com. Bishop Rukamba of the Butare Catholic Diocese on May 20 encouraged people to forgive as they came together to commemorate the 1994 genocide against Tutsi victims.
“Forgiving is to let go of the grudge….forgiving makes our hearts relax and eases the pain we feel,” he said.
The Rwandan Genocide was the 1994 mass murder of an estimated 800,000 people in the small East African nation of Rwanda. Over the course of approximately 100 days, more than 500,000 people were killed, according to a Human Rights Watch estimate. Estimates of the death toll have ranged between 500,000 and 1,000,000, or as much as 20% of the country’s total population. It was the culmination of longstanding ethnic competition and tensions between the minority Tutsi, who had controlled power for centuries, and the majority Hutu peoples, who had come to power in the rebellion of 1959-62 and overthrown the Tutsi monarchy.
Read more about the recent calls for forgiveness in Rwanda.
Victim Forgives War Criminal, Charles Taylor
Washington Post. In April, the Hague convicted former president of Liberia, Charles Taylor, of war crimes. Samuel Konkofa Koroma, who was directly impacted by a 10-year war in Sierra Leone fueled by Taylor, tells his story of suffering, his rescue from certain death by a former student, and his ultimate decision to forgive.
Finding forgiveness after Charles Taylor
By Samuel Konkofa Koroma,
Samuel Konkofa Koroma has led peace-building projects in Africa for the global humanitarian agency Mercy Corps.
Last month a court in The Hague found former Liberian president Charles Taylor guilty of 11 counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity for his role in fueling a 10-year, bloody conflict in Sierra Leone. The verdict capped a trial that itself had dragged on for years and had been punctuated by moments of sensationalism, such as Wikileaks revelations and the testimonies of supermodel Naomi Campbell and actress Mia Farrow.
With all of this spectacle, it can be easy to forget what the trial was really about: thousands of people like me, and the forgiveness that makes life bearable.
I’m from Sierra Leone, the country whose conflict Taylor was convicted of helping to finance. My life has taken me to Europe and to Uganda, but I’ve never forgotten my home: an impoverished, remote village.
Why Older People Are More Apt to Forgive
Mental Health News Organization – People become happier as they get older, according to recent research. Happiness significantly rises for the over 50-crowd, and while physical health may decrease as people get older, mental well-being increases, something researchers attribute to the lowered personal and professional expectations older people place on themselves.
Something else that comes with old age: an increased capacity to forgive others. It’s easier for older adults to forgive than it is for younger adults.
A recent study set out to examine the reason behind this positive relationship between age and forgiveness. Researchers hypothesized that the two personality traits of agreeableness and neuroticism (the degree of negativity in a person’s response to life situations) explain age differences in tendencies to forgive.
The study looked at individuals who ranged in age from 19-84 years and found that older adults showed higher levels of agreeableness and lower levels of neuroticism than younger adults. How does this relate to forgiveness? More agreeable people are more forgiving than less agreeable ones, and more neurotic individuals are less forgiving than less neurotic ones. Consequently, older people are more apt to forgive. Read the full story.
Episcopal Leaders Follow Amish Lead in Forgiving
ABCNews.com – The Episcopal Diocese of Maryland has made a generous offer of forgiveness toward and the payment of the funeral service for a homeless man who killed himself after fatally shooting a priest and the church secretary last week. The community based its gesture of forgiveness and generosity on what the Amish did when a man attacked and killed school girls in Pennsylvania in 2006. Full report here.
