Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line

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Forgiveness: Stories from the Frontline

Gripping stories from people who've had to struggle with forgiveness in order to be free.

How do you survive and restore your life when something truly appalling is done to you? Journalist Marina Cantacuzino hears five gripping stories.

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Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line: Father Lapsley

Father Lapsley

BBC Radio 4 - Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line, Father Lapsley

Father Michael Lapsley lost his hands and one eye in a bomb attack. Can he forgive?

Marina Cantacuzino talks to South African Father Michael Lapsley who lost his hands and one eye in a bomb attack.

Father Michael Lapsley was living in exile in Zimbabwe when in April 1990 he was sent a letter bomb in the post. He was targeted because he’s been an anti-apartheid campaigner in South Africa, and a chaplain for the African National Congress. In the blast he lost both of his hands and one eye, and his ear drums were ruptured. 

“Quite early on after the bomb, I realised that if I was filled with hatred and desire for revenge, I’d be a victim forever.  That is not to say that I will not always grieve what I’ve lost, because I will permanently bear the marks of disfigurement.  Yet I believe I’ve gained through this experience. I realise that I can be more of a priest with no hands than with two hands.”

Marina Cantacuzino is an award-winning journalist who became interested in forgiveness at the time of the Iraq War. It’s a subject she’s explored now for many years, in books and through founding a charity, ‘The Forgiveness Project’. A common theme running through these stories is that forgiveness is difficult, messy, and complex, but it brings with it the power to transform lives. 

Producer: Kim Normanton
Executive Producer: Elizabeth Burke
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Forgiveness: Stories from the Front Line

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