Healing divisions with the Eucharist

The International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin is in its fourth day, and reconciliation topped the agenda. The Eucharist is the instrument of unity in the Church, and its role on healing divisions was the topic of discussion.

Emer McCarthy filed this report from Dublin:

How can you forgive someone who has murdered your entire family in cold blood while they sought sanctuary in a Church? How can you forgive someone who shot you when you were a 10 year old boy in the school playground blinding you for life? How can you forgive deliberate abuse, lies, hurt, betrayal. How can you heal broken lives, families and communities?
This Thursday in Dublin a line was drawn in the sand as the theme for the fourth day of the 50^th International Eucharistic Congress focused on Reconciliation in our Communion.
The day began with a liturgy of reconciliation presided by Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. He told the story of Sr. Geneviève, from the community of St. Mary of Namur. How she found the strength to forgive the Hutu soldier - a former childhood friend - who murdered her family during that nations horrific genocide of 1994. Of she found inner peace.
Victims of war, violence and hatred, from Rwanda, Northern Ireland, Central America, the DRC and the Middle East took centre stage in the RDS arena to share with participants their journey towards forgiveness and reconciliation –some even with the perpetrators of their abuse. Because as one of the key-note speakers today put it, “I was already a victim of hatred and war, I did not want to become a victim to anger too”.
As the queues that have begun to characterise this global Church gathering began to form beneath ominous skies, the words of Fr. Timothy Radcliff OP on the spirituality of suffering and of healing floated above the crowd from the hastily erected giant screens. These have become necessary to contain the anger of the hundreds who have not been able to find space in the halls for catechesis. The Dominican preacher is just one of the speakers who has been forced to replicate his talks a total of four times. This is just one example of the hunger here in Ireland to learn, to heal and to be reconciled in communion.