Rugirangoga was speaking Sunday in a yearly ‘Healing Mass’ at Amahoro National Stadium.
The mass also aimed at commemorating the victims of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi.
He urged people who committed the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi to seek for pardon and also urged survivors to forgive. He said that a country without forgiveness becomes ashes.
He said that for a person to live peacefully they should forgive and the sinner should seek for forgiveness.
“When we don’t ask for forgiveness or forgive from the bottom of our hearts we can’t get eternal life. Seeking for forgiveness and forgiving is the knot of peace,” he said.
Rugirangoga is also a pact protector. He forgave the killers of his parent and supported their children’s education.
“Both perpetrators and survivors have one another’s keys to heaven; no one should blame another. Whoever opts to seek for pardon should do so and the other side should forgive. We are like being burnt in a house that is open; for us to get out from that house, we need one another,” he said.
Speaking at the Mass, the Minister of Sports and Culture, Julienne Uwacu said that Christians really know that the death is not the end of life based on Jesus’ history.
She said that remembrance of Jesus’ death should bring people to honor and remember the death genocide against the Tutsi victims succumbed to.
“It would be a shame to see people remembering Jesus’ death which they didn’t witness and forget the death of children, parents among others who died the similar death as Jesus,” she said.
She urged Christians to sacrifice different necessities during the commemoration period. She stressed on role of forgiveness as a weapon towards a secured country.
“The country, peace and security we have today are the price of forgiveness. The country has pardoned and put forward the unity of people,” she added.
The healing Mass was organized by Catholic Church’s Regina Pacis Parish Remera.
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