New Book: “Redeeming the Past”

Redeeming the Past, Father Michael Lapsley’s personal journey from a freedom fighter in South Africa to a healer, tells the story of a horrendous event that led this Anglican priest to a place of healing not just in South Africa but throughout the world.

Published by Orbis Books, the book division of the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers, Redeeming the Past was written with American psychotherapist Stephen Karakashian, who has worked closely with Father Lapsley. The book’s foreword is by Nobel Prize laureate Archbishop Desmond Mpilo Tutu.

During 1990, Father Lapsley was active in the struggle against apartheid. One day, he opened a letter bomb that nearly killed him and took both his hands and an eye. His story explains his role in South Africa and his personal rising awareness of the radical demands of the Gospel and his growing identification with the freedom struggle. In post-apartheid South Africa, Father Lapsley saw a whole nation in need of healing. He discovered a new vocation of drawing on his own experience of trauma to promote the healing of others.

Raised in New Zealand, Father Lapsley joined the Society of the Sacred Mission and journeyed to South Africa, where he worked with the African National Congress. After recovering from his injuries, Father Lapsley returned to the country to found the Institute for Healing of Memories.