Forum for dialogue and study on forgiveness and reconciliation

The first meeting of the Forum for Dialogue and Study on Forgiveness and Reconciliation, which has brought together the collaboration of the University Institute of Spirituality at Comillas Pontifical University and the Office for the Causes of Saints of the Spanish Episcopal Conference, was held on 12 March in the Polavieja Hall of Comillas Pontifical University.

The idea of creating this forum arose precisely in our university within the framework of the congress that took place in November last year on the occasion of the fifth centenary of the beatification of the martyrs of Algeria. There, the idea that an essential element of martyrdom is forgiveness and reconciliation was underlined. Even martyrdom has a significant pastoral dimension. n this sense, more than two thousand martyrs have been beatified in Spain and there are more than three thousand causes under study. One of the common elements in these cases is the forgiveness granted or implored for the executioners.

In this session, and after the speech by Francisco Ramírez Fueyo, Dean of the Faculties of Theology and Canon Law, the forum was introduced by Lourdes Grosso and Fernando Millán Romeral (directors of the two organising institutions). Afterwards, Monsignor  Juan Antonio Martínez Camino gave a conference entitled The gift of forgiveness as a path to reconciliation, in which he stressed that in the face of the obvious difficulty of forgiveness, the believer must not fall into pessimism: forgiveness is possible through God's grace and martyrdom is the best example of this.

The meeting was completed by a series of testimonies of forgiveness from the martyrs of Spain in the 20th century, mainly from the Vincentian family (presented by Sister María Ángeles Infante Barrera) and from the diocese of Córdoba (presented by Don Miguel Varona Villar).

Finally, the Director General of Publications of the EEC, Manuel Fanjul, presented the book 609 martyrs of the 20th century in Spain. Who are they and where do they come from, the fourth volume of the collection on the martyrs that the Spanish Episcopal Conference has been publishing for several years now.

Various media have echoed this event, such as Ecclesia COPE, Religión en libertad, Vida Nueva or the Archdiocese of Madrid.

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