Forgiving those who have offended does not mean forgetting the blows and the wounds received. It is the ability to see wrongdoers not just as wrongdoers, but as human beings who are to be pitied for the evil that they have perpetuated, while at the same time realizing that they are bearers of a potential that can turn them into friends and kin. Forgiving means opening them to this possibility.
— Leonardo Boff, The Prayer of Saint Francis