{"id":16047,"date":"2016-06-30T08:47:06","date_gmt":"2016-06-30T08:47:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/?p=16047"},"modified":"2016-06-30T08:47:06","modified_gmt":"2016-06-30T08:47:06","slug":"rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/","title":{"rendered":"RWANDA &#8211; Hope in the midst of hopelessness &#8211; Aleksandra Szymczak"},"content":{"rendered":"<style type=\"text\/css\"><\/style><h2><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Hope in the midst of hopelessness &#8211; a Tale of Mercy in Rwanda<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>In just 100 days in 1994, approximately 800 000 people were slaughtered in <\/em><em>Rwanda<\/em>. <em>The genocide counts as one of the greatest human tragedies in African history. Fr. Stanislaw Filipek SAC, a Polish missionary in Rwanda for over 30 years, has devoted his service to spreading awareness of God\u2019s Mercy building a Divine Mercy Sanctuary in Kigali and most recently coordinating the first continental Congress on God\u2019s Mercy in Africa to be held in September 2016. <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>During his visit to the international charity Aid to the Church in Need he spoke of his work in introducing Divine Mercy as experienced by Saint Sister Faustina Kowalska, the world-renowned apostle of Divine Mercy, in Rwanda today.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Hope in the midst of hopelessness <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cChrist revealed Himself to Sister Faustina between the two World Wars\u201d reflects Fr. Stanislaw. At a moment of deep hopelessness when people were afflicted with tragedy after an evil that was done, exactly in this very moment, out of the deepest hopelessness when everything was lost, ruined, God revealed Himself as merciful. God can fix it all. He can transform evil into good. We are being constantly invited to learn this, and this is the leitmotif of our pastoral work in Rwanda.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>The purifying experience of the Cross <\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Fr. Stanislaw draws a parallel to the Rwandan experience through a story.<strong> \u201c<\/strong>A young woman, some 20 years ago when she was a young girl, gave false testimony against a man who lived in a house that somebody else wanted to take. This false testimony was enough to put the man in jail for eight years. He suffered from being in jail while innocent and from the growing need for revenge. While in jail he had a personal encounter with Jesus. He converted and began a process of inner forgiveness. Meanwhile the woman who accused him realized that when she prayed the name of this man kept ringing in her head. Her conscience awoke and she started sharing with a priest and soon they concluded that she needed to find this man and beg for his forgiveness. So began a long process of searching. She searched the prisons for years. One day she learned the man had been released and she finally found his house. Scared and not knowing how he would react she asked for his forgiveness. \u2018I forgave you long ago\u2019 was the reply. \u2018I wanted to wreak a vengeance on you but I have converted and now I am aware that God led me through a Way of the Cross &#8211; a very difficult one &#8211; but one that released me. And so I forgive you.\u2019 He hugged and kissed her. These people are now friends.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>Good out of experienced evil<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The devotion to God\u2019s Mercy in Rwanda \u201cwas sown into fertile ground,\u201d says the missionary \u201cbecause in this post-war context a great question arose: How to talk about forgiveness? In Rwanda I often hear this question: \u2018who should forgive first\u2019? There is no easy answer, but I keep repeating: he, who is wiser, he, who is closer to God, he should learn to forgive. One never loses forgiving. On the contrary, you can only win. I think that John Paul\u2019s II words from <em>Dives in Misericordiae<\/em> are helpful here. He said that the art of God\u2019s Mercy consists in bringing good out of experienced evil. This means that we should not focus on evil &#8211; one that we have caused or one that we have experienced &#8211; but on the good that we can do. I think that this is the most effective, and probably the only way to reconciliation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><strong>The Sowing<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea of God\u2019s Mercy spread all over Rwanda in a quite simple way\u201d, explains the missionary. \u201cThe Pallottines in France published a small brochure on the Devotion to God\u2019s Mercy including the Rosary of Mercy, Sunday of Mercy, the Hour of Mercy, etc. We translated it into Kinyarwanda, one of the official languages and it spread quickly. At some point the bishops started asking, \u2018What is this all about, this God\u2019s Mercy\u2019. They didn\u2019t know and they were afraid it was some kind of sect.\u201d To answer the growing interest in the topic, the Pallottines in 2008 proposed to Rwanda\u2019s Episcopal Conference to take responsibility for the movement and it has since grown rapidly with national chaplains, a national committee of Divine Mercy Groups and from September 9 to 15, 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda a first African Continental Congress on God\u2019s Mercy will be held. Supported by Aid to the Church in Need, the theme of the meeting is \u2018God\u2019s Mercy as a source of hope for the New Evangelization of the African Continent\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter the tearing of a society apart by genocide, war and mourning the victims, we see clearly that God\u2019s Mercy might be the answer, an antidote to all this evil, by which people are afflicted\u201d rejoices Fr. Stanislaw.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><em><strong>Aleksandra Szymczak &#8211;\u00a0ACN International<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Procession-i-Rwanda-1.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-16051\" src=\"http:\/\/www.acnmalta.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/Procession-i-Rwanda-1.jpg\" alt=\"Procession-i-Rwanda\" width=\"279\" height=\"185\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hope in the midst of hopelessness &#8211; a Tale of Mercy in Rwanda \u00a0 In just 100 days in 1994, approximately 800 000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda. The genocide counts as one of the greatest human tragedies in African history. Fr. Stanislaw Filipek SAC, a Polish missionary in Rwanda for over 30 years, has&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":16049,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-e-newsletters"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>RWANDA - Hope in the midst of hopelessness - Aleksandra Szymczak - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RWANDA - Hope in the midst of hopelessness - Aleksandra Szymczak - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hope in the midst of hopelessness &#8211; a Tale of Mercy in Rwanda \u00a0 In just 100 days in 1994, approximately 800 000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda. The genocide counts as one of the greatest human tragedies in African history. Fr. Stanislaw Filipek SAC, a Polish missionary in Rwanda for over 30 years, has...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-06-30T08:47:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Baptism-by-Father-Zbigniew-Pawlowski-in-Kabuga-diocese-of-Kigali-1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"ACN Malta Media\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/\",\"name\":\"RWANDA - Hope in the midst of hopelessness - Aleksandra Szymczak - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Baptism-by-Father-Zbigniew-Pawlowski-in-Kabuga-diocese-of-Kigali-1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-06-30T08:47:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-06-30T08:47:06+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Baptism-by-Father-Zbigniew-Pawlowski-in-Kabuga-diocese-of-Kigali-1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Baptism-by-Father-Zbigniew-Pawlowski-in-Kabuga-diocese-of-Kigali-1.jpg\",\"width\":720,\"height\":540},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"RWANDA &#8211; Hope in the midst of hopelessness &#8211; Aleksandra Szymczak\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/\",\"name\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"description\":\"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2\",\"name\":\"ACN Malta Media\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"ACN Malta Media\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"RWANDA - Hope in the midst of hopelessness - Aleksandra Szymczak - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"RWANDA - Hope in the midst of hopelessness - Aleksandra Szymczak - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","og_description":"Hope in the midst of hopelessness &#8211; a Tale of Mercy in Rwanda \u00a0 In just 100 days in 1994, approximately 800 000 people were slaughtered in Rwanda. The genocide counts as one of the greatest human tragedies in African history. Fr. Stanislaw Filipek SAC, a Polish missionary in Rwanda for over 30 years, has...","og_url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/","og_site_name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","article_published_time":"2016-06-30T08:47:06+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":540,"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Baptism-by-Father-Zbigniew-Pawlowski-in-Kabuga-diocese-of-Kigali-1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"ACN Malta Media","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"ACN Malta Media","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/","name":"RWANDA - Hope in the midst of hopelessness - Aleksandra Szymczak - Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Baptism-by-Father-Zbigniew-Pawlowski-in-Kabuga-diocese-of-Kigali-1.jpg","datePublished":"2016-06-30T08:47:06+00:00","dateModified":"2016-06-30T08:47:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Baptism-by-Father-Zbigniew-Pawlowski-in-Kabuga-diocese-of-Kigali-1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Baptism-by-Father-Zbigniew-Pawlowski-in-Kabuga-diocese-of-Kigali-1.jpg","width":720,"height":540},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/2016\/06\/30\/rwanda-hope-in-the-midst-of-hopelessness-aleksandra-szymczak\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"RWANDA &#8211; Hope in the midst of hopelessness &#8211; Aleksandra Szymczak"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#website","url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/","name":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","description":"Aid to the Church in Need (Malta)","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/3c01ab68e03f1b76347f9f6ac439a9d2","name":"ACN Malta Media","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/93fb625be2ad6b7f825159f4ef11b098?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"ACN Malta Media"},"url":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/author\/admin2\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/acnmalta.org\/_oldsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}