Interview with Sister Camille D'Arienzo on forgiving clergy sexual abuse

To say that any particular sin is unforgivable is the same as saying that particular kinds of hate are permissible.  That is a conclusion that I just cannot bring myself to draw.  And I'm talking as one who has had very dear friends who suffered sexual abuse in their lives.  Their abusers still walked free... I knew some of them personally... and nothing would have satisfied me more than to bring great harm to them.  But I had to let that anger go or else risk becoming just like them.  And my friends, the victims, had to do the same.

The mistake people make is thinking that forgiveness is done for the benefit of the criminal.  But the truth is that forgiveness is done for the benefit of the victim.

Forgiveness does have the power to heal.  But the path of forgiveness requires an enormous amount of discipline.  In my view, it's more than any of us can muster by ourselves.  This is why communities founded upon the principles of unconditional love and forgiveness are so important.  Sister Camille wants her church to be such a community, so she's right to raise these very important questions to her fellow believers.

That Amish and forgiveness story has always been powerful to me. I've wondered if it would have been effective and what kind of message it would have been to the world if Bush would have forgiven the Middle East for 9/11.