Forgiveness Makes You Free: A Dramatic Story of Healing and Reconciliation from the Heart of Rwanda

by Fr. Ubald Rugirangoga, Immaculée Ilibagiza (Foreword), Heidi Hess Saxton (Contributor)

“‘Jesus, where are you?’ I prayed every night as I wept . . . I felt I had failed as a priest, for I had preached love and the people made genocide. . . .Then I heard God speak to me. Jesus wanted me to use these experiences to evangelize later. It was then that I knew my life would be spared. God would make a way.” During the 25th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, Fr. Ubald Rugirangoga tells the dramatic story of how he survived while losing more than eighty of his family members and 45,000 of his parishioners in the killings. In the aftermath, Fr. Ubald experienced a renewed sense of purpose as a minister of reconciliation and a healing evangelist in his homeland and around the world. In Forgiveness Makes You Free, he offers five spiritual principles that can help those traumatized by the past to experience healing and peace in Christ. In 1994 the world looked on in disbelief and horror as Rwanda erupted in violent bloodshed. All across the landlocked African country, militant Hutus rose up to exterminate the Tutsi population, including women and young children. One hundred days later, a million bodies littered fields, streets, and even churches. Now, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Rwandan genocide, a powerful testimony emerges of the power of God to bring peace and reconciliation into hearts full of fear and hate. In Forgiveness Makes You Free, Fr. Ubald Rugirangoga shares his own dramatic story of how he survived the genocide and its traumatic aftermath. He testifies about how God spared his life so that he might help others with deep physical, emotional, and spiritual wounds to experience peace and healing. In retelling the story of how he forgave the man who killed his family and cared for the man’s children while he was in prison, Fr. Ubald demonstrates how showing mercy can facilitate true forgiveness even in the most painful circumstances of our lives. Throughout the book, Fr. Ubald teaches about five spiritual keys that draw us to Christ, the only source of lasting Each chapter combines Fr. Ubald’s story with reflection questions that guide readers along their own path of from fear to faith, from shame to freedom, from isolation to reconciliation, from resentment to mercy, and from conflict to peace. The final chapter offers a guided meditation to help those who need to experience the power of God to release those held in bondage by fear and hate and to find the secret of peace. An appendix contains information about “The Mushaka Reconciliation Project,” a catechetical tool that has been used successfully by parishes in Rwanda, and could easily be adapted by parishes in the United States, to mediate reconciliation between individuals and groups who have become estranged by violence, trauma, and ethnic or cultural divisions.

Genres: Catholic

192 pages, Paperback

First published March 8, 2019

Reviews

[Debra · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a beautiful book. Fr. Ubald was a beautiful priest. He was from Rwanda and he lost 85 members of his family, including his mother, in the genocide that occurred there. His story of his struggle, his healing and his mission to bring others to forgiveness and mercy is brought to life in this book.
Fr. Ubald died this year and I have such a regret that I never attended one of his healing services. However, this book gives one the tools to forgive, to heal and to bring the light of mercy to others.
I was at a Memorial Mass for him at the Shrine of Our Lady of Good Help. I bought five additional copies of this book to give to others and I am so glad I did.
Read this book and share it with others.

[Marge Fenelon · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was acquainted with Fr. Ubald and his amazing gift and message before I read the book - or at least I thought I was acquainted with him. This book sheds light, not only in this wonderful priest who God has chosen for a critical mission but also on the Rwandan genocide and the essence of forgiveness. While reading the book, I found myself going back to earlier passages time and again in order to imprint them in my heart. "Forgiveness Makes You Free" has changed me interiorly and it will change you, too. Editor Heidi Hess Saxton has done an outstanding job of pulling together the information, witness, and wisdom of a complicated issue and making it flow perfectly.

[Ann-Marie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. Fr. Ubald is a Rwandan priest, who survived the genocide. Multiple members of his family were murdered. Fr. Ubald describes and recounts the events of the genocide. And then he speaks about his mission of forgiveness and reconciliation. He started a center that brings together those who perpetuated the violence, with their actual victims. I mean, literally, he connected the man who killed the woman's child and the woman and then helped them each to forgive and heal. Over and over again. The end of each chapter there is time for reflection. Many of us haven't survived genocide, or horrific crimes, but we all have people in our lives we struggle to forgive. Fr. Ubald's book is a beautiful guide for us on a path to healing.

Here's my favorite quote (from a retreat he preached for the victims): "As Christians, we are called to forgive just as Jesus forgave from the Cross. Forgiveness is a great gift, an unconditional gift. We don't forgive because we have no more problems but because we have made a decision to be free of the burden of fear, the burden of hate, the burden of vengeance. Jesus forgave those men who betrayed him, and those who were killing him even as he died. He stayed on that Cross, and he forgave."

[Heidi Saxton · Rating 5 out of 5]

How do you forgive the unforgiveable -- not for the sake of the one who has wronged you, but to find peace yourself? This is the question taken up by Fr. Ubald Rugirangoga, a survivor of the 1994 Rwandan Genocide, which decimated the population of Rwanda through the slaughter of more than a million lives in just 100 days. Fr. Ubald lost 80 members of his family and 45000 members of his parish …. Yet he miraculously survived, and took up the call from God to return to his homeland in order to help them find healing, peace, and reconciliation.

Each chapter of the book contains two parts: a biographical narrative that describes the horrors of the genocide from his own perspective as well as the aftermath, followed by a Scripture-based reflection that guides readers to process what they have just read and apply it to their own lives. This book will change your life -- it certainly has changed mine!

[Shannan Harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Forgiveness. Seems easier said than done. Most of us have someone to forgive, buy try to forgive someone that has killed your mother or father. Father Rugiranoga had to do that. His father was killed when he was a child, and his mother was killed during the Rwandan Genocide in the mid 1990's. In this book, not only does he talk about his story, but he talks about others who he has help to learn to forgive, including some of the people who were doing the killing during that time.

This book will put your feelings and emotions in check as you read some of the sad and heartwrenching stories that are provided. This was such an inspiring and amazing book.

I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley for an honest review.

[Daniel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!!! Forgiveness does set you free. As a Irish Catholic, I have read a few similar books, but this book is so much more! Fr. Ubald outlines the whole genocide in detail, and doesn't spare any of the grisly details. Fr. Ubald suffered so much loss and trauma, yet has preached and practiced Forgiveness!!!

[Mark Montanye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story was amazing. The accounts of the genocide in Rwanda from this book were truly disturbing, but then the story of forgiveness was very moving. To hear quotes and stories of those who survived the genocide but also those who committed the genocide. To hear one person who committed the crimes comment "I really miss the people that I killed." Or Fr. Ubald, when he met the militia solder who killed Fr. Ubald's mother and family, and the response from Fr. Ubald was a hug. Truly amazing stories of forgiveness and healing from others as well, and a country trying to move past this horrible event killing over 1,000,000 people in a period of three months.

[George Trudeau · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorites this year. Whom the Son sets free is freed indeed!

[Mi.Chellee · Rating 5 out of 5]

I didn’t know how much I needed to heal, to forgive and be forgiven until I read this book. The words of Fr. Ubald touch my heart and I felt a burden lifted

[. · Rating 3 out of 5]

A story of Catholics and forgiveness among the Rwandan genocide.