NEW YORK—On Jan. 18, St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City was filled with police officers and city dignitaries as a Mass was held for Detective Steven McDonald, eight days after the fifth anniversary of his death. On July 12, 1986, McDonald was on patrol in Central Park when he and his partner questioned 15-year-old Shavod Jones about bicycle thefts. Shavod fired three shots into McDonald, one of which left him a quadriplegic and on a ventilator. However, McDonald spent a good part of the next 31 years on a lecture circuit, preaching forgiveness. McDonald forgave his assailant soon after the attack. The Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the archbishop of New York. “Isn’t it appropriate that we gather here at St. Patrick’s Cathedral to remember—to remember with a lot of gratitude and reverence—Detective Steven McDonald?” Dolan said in his prepared sermon. Dolan talked about how the act …