Shining beacon of forgiveness

Richard A. Sokerka

In our endless news cycle of stories about hatred and vindictiveness, the life of Police Officer Steven McDonald stands out as a shining beacon, teaching us all how to forgive those who have trespassed against us.

McDonald, who died at 59 Jan. 10, had his life forever changed when he was shot by a teenager in Central Park in 1986. The bullet left him paralyzed from the neck down. At the time of the shooting, his wife, Patti Ann, was three months pregnant, with their son, Connor (now also a police officer).

Despite his fate of being wheelchair-bound for the rest of his life, using a tracheal tube to breathe, McDonald summoned his strong Catholic faith, vowing that he “should live, and live differently.” He prayed and said “that prayer was answered with a desire to forgive the young man who shot me because I wanted to free myself of all the negative, destructive emotions that his act of violence had unleashed in me: anger, bitterness, hatred, and other feelings. I needed to free myself of those emotions so that I could love my wife and our child and those around us.”

And through the rest of his life, McDonald took this message of forgiveness across the country and around the world for everyone to hear of its importance in every person’s life.

He was a Catholic who wore his faith on his sleeve, an example to all of us of what a follower of Jesus Christ is called to be in this life.