An Important Event in Rome

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Recently we have written about the times when people need to stand their ground and fight for what is right. Not merely for themselves and their pocketbooks but for all humanity, as a force of good on earth. Unfortunately these challenges present themselves more often than we would like. But if we miss the moment, the wrong elements will entrench themselves in the body politic and we end up with years of misery and suffering. Witness Syria.

But not every challenge we face is a call to arms, a need to fight. Yesterday in a sidebar news event, the Pope paid a visit to his former valet who had leaked controversial secret documents causing much embarrassment for the aged leader. I suspect that the valet felt he was striking a blow for right-minded thinking. He did not seem to personally gain from his act.  None the less, the importance of the moment is that a world leader of some authority elected to exercise his ability to forgive. The valet will likely end up in the temp services line when he gets out, but his boss, a man who may indeed be holier than thou and me, has gone on record as forgiving.

I write as a Doubting Thomas with no clear religious affiliation. Forgiveness is not the prerogative of the Catholic Church. We all have the ability to forgive the many slights and sins that will be done to us in our life time. The occasions range from minor social offenses to homicide. Those latter may take some doing, but we always seem to be beneficiaries of our own ability to forgive.

We are all imperfect vessels and we do things that seem right at the time but later turn out to be wrong. We need to get forgiveness as much as give it. This includes Christians and Moslems and Jews and Hindus and Buddists and Agnostics and Aetheists and Mormons and Scientologists. Those who cannot forgive and are consumed by their own anger and desire for revenge pay a steep price in the end.

As we come to the end of a very contentious year with many dug into their faith and core beliefs, it is clearly time for a round of forgiveness. Americans, left and right, rich and poor, male and female, gay and straight need to forgive each other and move on. We need a clean slate to start the new year, and forgiveness, as modeled by Pope Benedict yesterday, is the only way to accomplish that. He has set an example for us all.

Tom Godfrey

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