Forgiveness is at heart of reconciliation, theologian says

Published: 2006-06-26

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- It is forgiveness, not justice, that brings repentance and reconciliation, Boston College theologian Roberto Goizueta said in a Catholic Common Ground Initiative lecture June 24 at The Catholic University of America. Before the lecture, Archbishop Daniel E. Pilarczyk of Cincinnati presented Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Atlanta with the initiative's 2006 Cardinal Bernardin Award. The award recognized the Atlanta archbishop's efforts to bring healing to the U.S. church in the wake of the 2002 crisis over clergy sexual abuse of minors. Archbishop Gregory was elected president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in November 2001, just two months before the Boston Globe began an investigative series on clergy sex abuse in Boston that quickly burgeoned into a nationwide outcry. "Throughout the crisis, he led the USCCB with great courage and manifest faith," Archbishop Pilarczyk said. Archbishop Gregory's three-year term as president ended in November 2004.

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