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Signs of peace: Catholics around the world can inspire us with the many ways--both personal and political--through which they build peace.

Article Excerpt
Mary Mukanaho is a Tutsi in Rwanda. Her seven children and husband were killed in the 1994 genocide--by neighbors whom she had lived next to for 40 years. She survived because she happened to be out of the country at the time. She felt she was going mad and turned to alcohol to dull the pain. She was enraged to see her neighbors receive Communion with the very hands that had murdered her family.

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It was not until 1998, when she took part in an intensive process of reconciliation established by the Catholic Church in Rwanda, that Mukanaho slowly began to deal with her trauma. She realized that she could never get her family back, but, she says, "at least you will live in peace if you forgive."

Eventually she was able to offer forgiveness to two of her neighbors, Athanase Niyombonye and Innocent Bucyana, when they finally came and asked for her pardon.

The Rwandan genocide was so shocking, in part, because such massive inhumanity is relatively rare. But Mukanaho's story, recounted by author Jeffry Korgen, is far from unique. Mukanaho's faith called her to build peace through a wrenching process of personal healing, but peace-building is also frequently an urgent political task.

Just as Mukanaho could not find peace without forgiveness, whole communities and nations torn apart by war cannot find peace without undergoing a very difficult process of forgiveness and reconciliation.

While the role of religion in today's conflicts and wars often makes headlines in places like Gaza, Afghanistan, Pakistan, or Iraq, religiously inspired peacebuilding receives comparatively little attention.

But the same kind of unwavering, absolute commitment to one's faith that can make religion a source of division also makes it a powerful force for freedom, justice, and liberation.

In northern Uganda,...

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