从灰烬中重生，改变世界

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the genocide in Rwanda, a human rights atrocity 这使得 approximately one million Tutsi dead over the course of about 100 days.

Marcel Uwineza, a Jesuit priest and 电子游戏软件 graduate, was a young teen in Rwanda in 1994. He was beaten and his home and all his family’s belongings were burned. 他的两个兄弟，一个姐姐和一个阿姨被杀. 他的母亲遭到殴打，后来伤重不治. Fr. Uwineza and his three younger siblings were saved when a Hutu man hid them on his property.

Fr. Uwineza “illustrates the profound and enduring dynamics between the goodness and mercy of God on one hand, and the proclivity of sinful human nature to rebel against the divine call to 'Love God and neighbor' on the other” in his memoir, 浴火重生: Theology as Autobiography in Post-Genocide Rwanda. He reviews the history that led to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi and recounts the painful experience of being a witness to the genocide. He also writes of his journey to the priesthood and the liberating power of forgiveness—specifically, 那一刻他原谅了杀害他兄弟姐妹的凶手.

Fr. Uwineza had returned to his village to pray at the burial site of his family. The man who killed his siblings had been released from jail and approached Fr. Uwineza, who was frightened and didn’t know what this man wanted from him. 然后，这个人跪下来请求原谅. Fr. Uwineza raised the man up, embraced him, and said, “I forgive you.”

浴火重生 还详细说明了如何. Uwineza has been using what he calls his “extra time” to be “a living bridge between the wounded in Rwanda and those who did the wounding.” He said: “I want to be a messenger of reconciliation and a way for people to reach God.”

2019年，当他还是不列颠哥伦比亚省的博士候选人时，他 spoke to the United Nations General Assembly on the International Day of Reflection on the 1994 Genocide Against the Tutsi in Rwanda. 他提供了强有力的个人证词，并原谅了美国.N. and the international community for abandoning Rwanda in its time of need.

Fr. Uwineza 在卢旺达共同组织了一次会议 召集了一个国际主教团体, 神学家, and multidisciplinary researchers to explore restoring fundamental peace and rebuilding lasting reconciliation as a Catholic Church in post-genocide Rwanda.

在会议上，Fr. Uwineza gave a talk titled “Reimagining Humanity: A Theology that Makes Sense of the Wounds of History,” where he compared the dry bones seen in the memorials in Rwanda to the country’s enduring scars, 他强调了记忆在神学上的重要性.

Fr. Uwineza is co-editor of an important scholarly volume drawn from that conference, titled Reinventing Theology in Post-Genocide Rwanda: Challenges and Hopes (乔治敦大学出版社，2023). It is considered the first comprehensive examination of the Catholic Church’s role in the genocide against the Tutsi and its attempts at reconciliation. 电子游戏软件 contributors to the publication include the late Dean Thomas D. Stegman,年代.J.，以及名誉教授M. 肖恩·科普兰.

He also is author of a forthcoming publication from Brill titled 医治受伤的人:分裂世界的神学.