Who’s captive and who’s free?

Stories like this startle us into wondering. Hopefully.

As Ingrid Betancourt adjusts to her new and sudden freedom, she does and says things the supposedly free and prosperous world needs to consider. 

She declined to give details about hardships during her detention, saying, “I’m in the process of forgiving.”

“If I speak too soon, I may convey attitudes of anger I don’t want to convey,” said Betancourt, a former Colombian senator who was kidnapped while campaigning for the presidency in 2002.

This woman suffered six years of brutal captivity in a hostile jungle at the hands of men who became “monstrous” in their behavior, and she’s talking about forgiving.

When Pope Benedict XVI came to the US in April, he talked about the family as the essential building block of society and the dire need to strengthen it, about serious problems that challenge families these days, and the need to face those threats with honesty and resolve. It pretty much starts with everyone finding the ability to forgive, he said. That’s a huge problem for us. People are hurt and angry.

Where does Betancourt get this serenity and profound recognition of innate human dignity? From her Roman Catholic faith, embedded in her DNA. She is an incredible witness to supernatural grace.

And when you look at her, she wants you to remember the hundreds of other captives out there at this moment in the jungle still hanging on hope. The Western media don’t report her saying the words “pray for them,” but she is.