For a man whose ring name was just plain "Big", that was as big a statement of understanding and forgiveness you could wish for.
At a weeklong conference scheduled to begin on Wednesday, the country's more than 300 bishops are to sign a statement asking forgiveness of Indians and blacks for sins the church committed against them during the colonial period.
In these denominations, absolution is neither a judicial act nor a means by which the forgiveness of sins is conferred but is, instead, a statement of divine judgment and divine forgiveness.
But in newspapers and the public statements of officials, there seemed to be a mood of forgiveness, or at least of decorum as this frail, elderly man suffered through his final days.
Marchant also heard briefly from victims' family members, who at Roof's bond hearing in state court expressed statements of mercy and forgiveness despite his alleged crimes.
Justifications for the later included, "To remind me and presage me"., "His presence will remind me of the statement of faith and to ask for forgiveness"., and "Good thing to have, maybe he will help me (after God), to ease death and prepare to meet God".
The play's blurb describes it as a statement of hope in impossible circumstances, of reunion with old friends, with a message of forgiveness.
After initially denying his use of the word, Clarkson later released a video statement "begging forgiveness" for the error.
Before Castro's sentencing on 1 August, Knight stood in court and read a heart-wrenching statement that not only detailed what he had done to her but stretched out a hand of forgiveness.
