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Inaugural
event of the College's Center for
Religion, Ethics and Culture
What
does it mean to forgive? Is forgiveness always appropriate? Does forgiving
mean forgetting? Is it compatible with justice? What does it accomplish?
These issues and others were examined in an interdisciplinary conference
on forgiveness held at Holy Cross Sept. 14 and 15. The conference was part
of the inaugural semester of the College's new Center for Religion, Ethics and
Culture.
The conference was made up of a
broad range of panels, focusing on a wide variety of contexts
that raise particular questions about forgiveness. Guest
experts
and Holy Cross faculty spoke to and invited discussion on topics including:
forgiveness and reparation for past crimes such as slavery;
forgiveness in the aftermath
of sexual assault; the history and evolution of forgiveness; forgiveness and
the American criminal justice system; and the similarities and variations between
Catholic, Jewish and Muslim views
on forgiveness.
Other panels explored modern social issues, such as
the death penalty, Third World debt, forgiveness in post-civil war societies
like Argentina and Guatemala,
and the implications of the Holocaust for Christians.
The major speakers were Donald W. Shriver Jr., president
emeritus and professor at Union Theological Seminary, who is a renowned scholar
on forgiveness; and
Professor Aaron Lazare, M.D., chancellor and dean at UMASS Medical School,
a recognized expert on apology.
The conference was inspired by the recognition that public dialogue about forgiveness
has recently taken some surprising twists. South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation
Commission has made very public use of it to heal the rifts of apartheid; the
Catholic Church made a plea for forgiveness for past sins against humanity; and
western leaders have apologized for their
countries' role in political subversion in the Third World. Conversely, the
American criminal justice system has become more wary of the value of forgiveness,
relying
on the death penalty and longer incarceration.
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