Signs of peace  By Gerard F. Powers| comments | Print this
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around the world can inspire us with the many ways — both
personal and political — through which they build peace.  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.  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 Niy