BEveryday there is news of men and women who express concern about violence to children, sex trafficking, sexual assaults on helpless kids, children dying of hunger, capital punishment for the young and even bullying. These while life is considered sacred and should be valued.
And yet, there are more deaths of helpless babies through abortion. They are killed because their own mothers willed it.
In abortion, a mother plays God and decides who dies. Always, it overrules God and disregards conscience. Saint Teresa of Calcutta lamented: “If we accept that a mother can kill even her own child, how can we tell other people not to kill each other.”
Profound Catholic
Saint Gianna Beretta Molla is the 10th of 13 children, five of which died at a young age. She was born on October 14, 1922, to Albert Beretta and Maria de Michelli of Magenta, Milan, in Italy. When she was three years old, the family moved to Bergamo.
A profound Christian, Maria taught her children that “Jesus was the first, the absolute one to love, praise and serve,” and would take her children to attend daily Mass.
A lower middle-class family in Bergamo, they, however, produced four medical doctors and two engineers, of whom two became priests and one a nun.
She attended a school administered by Canossian sisters and received her first Holy Communion on April 4, 1928, in Saint Grata in Bergamo. A diligent student, she never sacrificed the duties of faith, prayer life and apostolate for her studies.
In March 1938, Gianna attended her first spiritual retreat. In her notebook of notes and prayers were 11 resolutions, which included: “I wish to fear mortal sin as if it were a snake, and I repeat: I wish to die a thousand times rather than offend the Lord. I will pray to the Lord to let me go to heaven. I will always say I have fear not to go there, thus, I will pray with the help of God. I will enter the kingdom of God.”
In 1949, she earned a degree in medicine and surgery at the University of Pavia. In 1950, she opened a clinic in Mesero near her hometown of Magenta to serve children, the aged and mothers. She went back to school and finished pediatrics in 1952.
An active member of Saint Vincent de Paul Society, she increased her involvement with Catholic Action, an organization of lay Catholics in 1952, to spread the social teachings of the Catholic Church.
Please, choose the baby
Pietro Molla, an engineer, met Gianna in 1950, when she opened a surgical clinic right in front of the Molla residence. But it was only in 1954 that they became acquainted with each other.
On April 11, 1955, the Molla and Beretta famiies came together in the church for the official betrothal of Pietro and Gianna, who were married in the Basilica of Saint Martin of Magenta in September.
After a long, beautiful and interesting honeymoon, the couple settled at a beautiful villa surrounded by trees and flowers. Always, it was a beautiful day—new with “its history of work, prayer, worries, hopes and love.”
Gianna’s dedication to her work never waned. If she was called for help at night, Pietro would accompany her, said Paolo Iafolla in Gianna, The Love Letters of A Saint.
In a span of four years, the couple had three children: Pierluigo in 1956; Ma Zita, usually called Mariolina, in 1957; and Lauretta in 1959. Gianna had two miscarriages.
She had a great love for children so her fourth pregnancy brought her so much joy. But, a malignant tumor developed that endangered her life and the baby.
The safest alternative was hysterectomy, a total removal of the uterus. The second option is therapeutic abortion; the third alternative was to remove the fibroma to save the life of the child at the risk of her own life.
Gianna’s first priority was to save the life of the child. The operation went well.
Aware she had little chance to survive, she kept tidying the house and put everything in order as if she were leaving for a long trip.
A month before the delivery, she talked with Pietro. “When the time comes if you have to choose between me and the baby, please, please, choose the baby,” which left Pietro speechless.
Labor pains started on April 1 but without hope for a natural delivery. So a caesarean operation was performed. Gianna was ecstatic to see the baby, but the pains that followed alerted doctors for expected complications. She was diagnosed with septic peritonitis, which spread into the blood, resulting in multiple organ failure and death. She went through seven days of ghastly sufferings.
Heroic love
ProLife, by Fr. Adolf Faroni, SDB, noted that Gianna stubbornly refused pain killers and remained conscious, endured and prayed to Jesus, kissed the crucifix and told her sister, Mo. Victoria, a doctor and Canossian nun, “Take care of my little angels.”
She repeatedly asked for Holy Communion but couldn’t swallow the Eucharist, “so it was placed on her thirsty tongue just to touch Him.” She would mumble, “Jesus, I love you, I love you.”
After receiving the last rites of the church, she told her husband, in the morning of April 28: “Pietro, take me home, I want to die in our bed.” Although the household woke up, the relatives “did not have the courage to make the children see their dying mother.” Gianna died at about 8 a.m. on April 28, 1962. She was 39 years, six months and 14 days of age.
She was beatified on April 24, 1994, and canonized on May 16, 2004, with the presence of husband Pietro and fourth child, Gianna Emmanuela, and other members of the family.
Saint Gianna is the patron saint of unborn children, mothers and pediatricians.
Damo-Santiago is a former regional director of the Department of Education National Capital Region. She is currently a faculty member of Mater Redemptoris Collegium in Calauan, Laguna, and of Mater Redemptoris College in San Jose City, Nueva Ecija.