Hope and Forgiveness
As part of the Jubilee of Hope, St. Frances Cabrini Shrine has invited the remarkable Immaculée Ilibagiza to speak on May 7, 2025, on the topic of Hope and Forgiveness.
Immaculée’s story is tremendously inspiring. During the Rwandan genocide of 1994, her father – to protect his only daughter from rape and murder — told Immaculée to run to a local pastor’s house for protection. The pastor sheltered Immaculée and seven other women in a hidden 3’ x 4’ bathroom. For the next 91 days, Immaculée and the other women huddled silently in this small room while the genocide raged outside.
While she was in hiding, anger and resentment began to destroy Immaculée’s mind, body and spirit. It was then that Immaculée turned to prayer. Immaculée’s father, a devout Catholic, had given her a set of rosary beads before she went into hiding. She began to pray the rosary as a way of drowning out the anger inside her, and the evil outside the house. It was this turning point, when she turned toward God and away from hate, that saved her.
After 91 days, Immaculée was liberated from her hiding place weighing just 65 pounds. Her entire family had been brutally murdered, with the exception of one brother who was studying abroad. She learned that nearly one million of her extended family, friends, neighbors and fellow Rwandans had been massacred.
After the genocide, Immaculée came face-to-face with the man who killed her mother and one of her brothers. After enduring months of physical, mental and spiritual suffering, Immaculée was still able to offer the unthinkable, telling the man, “I forgive you.”
Immaculée’s story of resilience, hope, and forgiveness is one all of us need to hear.
Immaculée’s first book, Left to Tell; Discovering God Amidst the Rwandan Holocaust (Hay House) quickly became a New York Times Best Seller. To date, it has been translated into seventeen languages and has sold over two million copies.
Tickets to this unforgettable talk are $20. Buy them online or at the door.
