Preaching the power of forgiveness many times over

Affected by genocide, a priest and a minister deliver message of hope.

By Teresa Watanabe
Los Angeles Times
July 7, 2007

One is an Armenian American priest who resides in Pasadena, the other a Rwandan minister who lives half a world away in Kigali. Across culture and distance, however, Father Vazken Movsesian and Benjamin Kayumba share a powerful if tragic bond: their peoples' traumatic legacy of genocide.

Movsesian lost dozens of relatives, including a grandfather, during the early 20th century massacre of about 1.2 million Armenians under the Ottoman Empire, which became the modern republic of Turkey.

For Kayumba, the scars are more recent. He lost 152 relatives, including both parents, during the 1994 slaughter of more than 800,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus by Hutu extremist militias.

The men also share a conviction: that only forgiveness can ultimately heal themselves and their communities.

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