Con McHugh is a parishioner of the Archdiocese of Birmingham. He is working on a video project as part of the Jubilee Year exploring each of the Jubilee themes:

Care for Creation, Food Poverty, Modern Slavery, Managing Debt, Forgiveness, Rest and Worship. 

In the third video of the series, we listen to Margaret Mizen MBE talk about Forgiveness.

Barry and Margaret Mizen (pictured above) came to national attention in 2008 when their 16-year-old son Jimmy (pictured) was murdered in south-east London. In the immediate aftermath, Barry and Margaret spoke of compassion for his killers rather than revenge and promised not to be beaten by Jimmy's death, believing that something good would come from it.

In 2009 they set up the Mizen Foundation dedicating their lives to working for Forgiveness, Peace & Hope. The charity has worked with schools across the United Kingdom, including in the Archdiocese of Birmingham, to help young people make their local communities safer.

In 2010, The Tablet named the Mizen family as among Britain’s most influential Catholics. Barry and Margaret were both appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours for services to young people in London. In 2016 Margaret was made Vice Chancellor of St Mary’s University Twickenham. 

In the video Margaret says:

“However, as the weeks went on after Jimmy was killed, I suppose the weeks and months I knew something was missing from my life and I didn't know what that something was. And then I realised I'd lost my smile. I was crying all the time and I didn't want to cry all the time.

“I wanted to remember Jimmy with joy, not Jimmy with tears. And I knew that the only way that I could start smiling again was to forgive the boy that killed Jimmy. But I also wanted to get up in the mornings and look out of the window and see the sun shining and the flowers blossoming that I couldn't do if I didn't forgive him.

“So I do forgive the boy that killed Jimmy. And I forgive him with all my heart. But because I forgive him, it doesn't mean to say that I, I want to be his best friend. I don't, and it doesn't mean to say it doesn't matter what happened to Jimmy. It most certainly does. But by forgiving him, it's almost taken this weight off my shoulders.”

Discover the Mizen Foundation

Watch! Margaret Mizen in conversation

The Jubilee Year

Video 2: Modern Slavery

Video 1: Care for Creation