Detroit Bishop Preaches Forgiveness and Humility

February 7, 2002

Source: Star Tribune

On February 7, 2002, the Star Tribune reported that "Bishop Thomas Gumbleton told an overflow crowd of about 1,300 Wednesday night at the Basilica of St. Mary that the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks should be forgiven and an 'active love' undertaken... 'We should pray for those who perpetrated that extraordinary violence against us on September 11,' said Gumbleton, a 72-year-old Catholic priest from Detroit. 'You can't worship God unless you forgive your brothers and sisters'... Gumbleton, one of only four U.S. bishops to vote against a measure supporting the war on terrorism, decried U.S. involvement in South America and elsewhere, which he said led to death and disarray... 'After September 11, if we had any kind of humility - any kind of awareness for what was going on in the world - instead of being angry, we should have begged God for forgiveness,' Gumbleton said."