Help! What Does the Church Teach about Forgiveness?



Dear Catholic Exchange:

Help! What exactly does the Catholic Church teach about forgiving each other? Is there a complicated formula of only forgiving someone who is repentant or do we just forgive everyone, even if we don't know them personally (like Hitler)?

Thank You,

Lulu Lopez


Dear Lulu,

No complicated formula, just an extremely hard command: Love your enemies.

The example set by Jesus is as hard as it is simple. He forgave his murderers even though they did not repent. We are to extend mercy to anyone who hurts us. It does not follow that they will receive that forgiveness and profit from it, but we are to extend it. It also does not follow that we may not fight against those whom we forgive. Catholic teaching has always made room for Just War and the necessity that, sometimes, we must fight and kill those who threaten the innocent.

Mark Shea

Senior Content Editor

Catholic Exchange

The Accuracy of Barna Research

Dear Editor:

I sent the following message to Barna Research because I think some of their findings are wrong:

Where are you getting your facts in your “The Most Intriguing Findings of the Year 2001” as seen on CatholicExchange.com?

I beleive your facts regarding the Catholic Church being 2nd to the Baptist Church is wrong, unless the Southern Baptists are now greater than 60 million. Also your facts regarding Hispanics and the Catholic Church are in error.

For more accurate answers, please go the U.S. Catholic Bishops website. www.nccbuscc.org

My question for you: If wrong — and their facts do not jive with the U.S. Catholic Bishops numbers — why is your Catholic website giving a platform for these findings?

Please respond.

Jeff V.

Dallas, TX


Dear Mr. Vaughan,

Thank you for your feedback. We posted the Barna piece because it is an interesting year-end analysis based on their own survey research. We only elect to post a small selection of Barna offerings each year because of its Protestant nature. This piece, like the others we featured in 2001, contains information we deemed relevant to our Catholic audience.

I understand their first point to which you object to mean that their surveys found that Roman Catholics constitute the second highest “born again” Christian population (i.e., reconversions to the faith), not the second largest Christian denomination overall, which, as you say, would be incorrect.

Best wishes for a happy and holy 2002.

In Christ,

Tom Allen

Editor, President

Catholic Exchange


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