Standing ovations at the Vatican
Western Sydney couple Danny and Leila Abdallah were invited by the Pope to share their harrowing story with thousands of parishioners at the 2022 World Meeting of Families in Rome .
On June 25 , they shared their story with the world and gave a compelling talk on " Forgiveness as the way to Holiness .”
Readers may remember that the Abdallah ’ s three children and a niece were killed by a man who was drunk and high on drugs while behind the wheel of a motor vehicle in February 2020 .
The Abdallahs spoke to a global audience and recalled the devastating moment when told of the children ’ s deaths , and explained why they had chosen to forgive the man who caused the accident through the I4Give campaign they have set up .
“ There ’ s been more than two years and I must choose to forgive myself and the driver every day , to not retreat into hatred ,” said Mr Abdallah to those in the Vatican and to millions of others watching online .
“ I choose to forgive myself for telling my kids to go for walk . I choose to forgive the offender in obedience to my Father in heaven .”
“ If my children were here today , they would say ‘ Dad , forgive him .'” “ When you forgive the other person , you start to heal .”
Mrs Abdallah said , “ I would not have imagined we would be in the Vatican on the eve of my son ’ s birthday to speak about forgiveness to the world .”
“ You can ’ t control what happens in life , but you can choose how to respond . We choose forgiveness over hatred , we choose love over revenge and we choose to turn the day of tragedy into a day of forgiveness .”
I4Give Day now happens on 1 February every year . Read about it and the I4Give Foundation at
www . i4give . com
Information taken from Over Sixty website . - Brian Rope
St Margaret ’ s News 15 August 2022