Dear Editor,
Recently I interviewed on HMWN Radio Maria here in Toronto for the Family Matters program the author, Immaculee Ilibagiza, of «Left to Tell.» It’s an account of her miraculous survival from the Rawandan genocide of 1994 that nearly killed her whole family, and by some accounts, in just 91 bloody days, nearly a million Tutsis were senselessly slaughtered. When I asked her how could friends and neighbors do such unspeakable violence to each other. Her answer came quickly and honestly: When God is absent in our lives then evil takes its place.
So Cardinal [Marc] Ouellet is absolutely correct in his wise observation that people Latvia, according to Bishop Antons Justs of Jelgava, were forced «to walk on the Bible — to despise the Word of God — and yet they had knelt down and kissed the Bible. Then they were sent to Siberia for 10 years.
But when they came back, they proclaimed the Word and, lifting high the Bible, said, ‘This is the Word for which our fathers died.’ These people have extraordinary conviction. And when we heard these witnesses we were touched and moved ourselves.»
These testimonies serve to help us realize that the importance of the Church in safeguarding the Word of God and to spread the Good News. I was touched by Immaculee’s testimony of survival in the face of horror. I was moved as she gave witness to the power of the Word, prayer and a strong faith in God.
This is the only way to build our lives on «solid» ground.
Thank you,
Lou Iacobelli
HMWN Radio Maria
Toronto
