Per Christum

I’d like to introduce you to my new friend, Gianna Molla, in anticipation of her fourth feast day, which the church celebrates tomorrow, April 28.  I like this saint, because I think a lot of modern women can relate to her. Like so many out there, Gianna was a working mom.

Gianna Beretta Molla was born in Italy on October 4, 1922.  From childhood, she served God faithfully. She graduated from the University of Pavia with a medical degree in surgery with honors.  She opened a clinic with her brother, and since she loved babies, she obtained a certificate in pediatrics.  She later married Peter Molla, an engineer, in 1955.

Before she was married, she ministered to young girls through Catholic Action, a group involved with catechesis of young people.  She once said something to the girls, which would prove to some day be tested.  She said: 

“Eternal and earthly happiness depends on the fulfillment of your vocation. Your vocation is one to a material, spiritual and moral maternity, because God has placed in us an inclination to life.

“Each of us should make room for our vocation, for the giving of life.  If, perchance, we may have to die while carrying out our vocation, that would be the most beautiful day of our lives.”

Well, Gianna wanted a big family. She and Peter had a son, Pierluigi, then two daughters, Mariolina and Laura, followed by two miscarriages.  In the summer of 1961, Gianna became pregnant with another child.

Within two months, Gianna developed a large tumor in her uterus that threatened both her life and the life of her baby.  Her doctor advised her to have an abortion in order to save her life.  Instead, she opted for a riskier surgery that would remove the tumor to protect the baby while leaving her own life at risk.

The operation was successful in preserving her baby’s life, but as her pregnancy continued, Gianna had a premonition of what was to come.  She was ready to sacrifice her life so that her child could live.

A few days before the baby was due, she told her husband:  “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: Choose the child; I insist on it.  Save the baby!”

On Holy Saturday, 1962, after a Caesarian section, Gianna gave birth to a healthy baby girl weighing nearly 10 pounds.  The child was named Gianna as well.  (Today, “little” Gianna is also a medical doctor, a gerontologist.)

That same day, the mother’s condition began to deterioriate.  She was dying of septic peritonitis, an infection of the lining of the abdomen-a result of her choice to preserve the life of her child.  Gianna died a week later on April 28, 1962 (now her feast day).

Many saints aren’t formally recognized by the Church until centuries after their death.  But Gianna’s cause for canonization began within three decades after she died.  The miracles necessary for the process occurred in a relatively short period of time, so that her husband, three surviving children and siblings were all able to attend her canonization by Pope John Paul II on May 16, 2004.

Perhaps our God is trying to promote Gianna’s message of holiness in everyday life to our troubled world at this crucial time, in this culture of death.

Read more about Gianna here.

Prayer of Saint Gianna
Jesus, I promise You to submit myself to all that You permit to befall me,
make me only know Your will.
My most sweet Jesus, infinitely merciful God, most tender Father of souls,
and in a particular way of the most weak, most miserable, most infirm
which You carry with special tenderness between Your divine arms,
I come to You to ask You, through the love and merits of Your Sacred Heart,
the grace to comprehend and to do always Your holy will,
the grace to confide in You,
the grace to rest securely through time and eternity in Your loving divine arms.

- Abridged/adapted from article by Joseph Cunningham, J.D. - The Catholic Answer - November/December 2005 Edition

The Catholic Report has linked to a poll suggesting that young people are not necessarily as progressive as the media and others assume  when it comes to sexual morality and other issues. According to a poll taken of 1250 Americans between ages 21-29, 94 percent respect monogamy, and 84 percent revere marriage. I am a little curious how the survey worded the questions, since there is a big difference between respecting monogamy and actually making an effort to practice it. Nonetheless, if this poll is accurate, it tends to shatter a few myths about young people, namely that we don’t really want traditional values. I should note that I fall in the upper end of the survey range, so this is in effect describing my generation.

I have been toying with a little hypothesis as of late, and it is that in the past, it was easier to be a mindless conservative, because culture tended to be more conservative. However, today, I think it is counter-cultural to be conservative sexually (and by this I mean traditional in one’s views of marriage, divorce, etc). Walk onto a college campus today, and tell me which end of the spectrum of positions on sexual morality is easier to hold, the more open and progressive view, or the more conservative, traditional view? Which view is more likely to be mindlessly accepted, that marriage is a lifetime commitment between one man and one woman, or the view that getting married is no big deal, and that pre-marital sex and cohabitation are morally neutral (or even good) expressions of love? Which view is promoted constantly by Hollywood, music, educational institutions, etc? And which view requires serious thought to understand and defend in the midst of our current secular culture, if a person is even allowed to defend it, since on some campuses defending traditional sexual norms amounts to hate speech?

Now, I am not saying that there aren’t uncritical conservatives, or that all morally progressive individuals are thoughtless (although apparently some students cast their votes based on free concert tickets). I am just saying that these days, if a young person is going to default to an uncritical, thoughtless, viewpoint, it seems to me that it will be a more progressive and “liberal” view of sexuality (although maybe this poll shows otherwise!). Perhaps this is one reason why we are seeing a strong showing on behalf of marriage among younger people. Part of it, I am sure, is that many young people have lived through the results of the sexual revolution and found the revolution that their parents started to be disastrous. Another part of it, I think, is that so many uncritically accept secular sexual assumptions, that being traditional in one’s sexual morality is counter-cultural and requires knowledge and courage to defend.

Image from: stmarycatholic.org

A professor of moral theology, Janet Smith is the author of Humanae Vitae: A Generation Later, editor of Why Humanae Vitae Was Right: A Reader, and Life Issues, Medical Choices. (Click To Listen, Right Click To Download)

Contraception: Why Not? - Part 1

Contraception: Why Not? - Part 2

SOURCE: CatholiciPod

To hear an interview with Dr. Janet Smith, Fr. Michael J. McGivney Chair of Life Ethics and Professor of Moral Theology from an Australian Radio (May 2, 2006 at 8.30pm)
on the topics of condoms and AIDS:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/relrpt/stories/s1629283.htm

While you are thinking about it… Stop in and take a look at Taylor Marshall’s The Bible Against Contraception

Rules

For Fighting Fair

[See how many you can guess without looking.]

Read the rest of this entry »

A little reading music: “When I Grow Up” by Garbage…

A newly released study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that at least one in four teenage girls nationwide has a sexually transmitted disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study indicates that more than 3 million teen girls aged 14- to 19-years-old have an STD — the Human Papilloma Virus being the most common infection. The study found the highest prevalence rate was among black girls – nearly half the blacks studied had at least one STD, compared with 20 percent of white and Mexican-American teens. Among sexually active teens, the rate was 40 percent.

Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America(CWA), says bad public policy is to blame for the STD epidemic. “The funding of graphic sex-ed that encourages kids to be sexually active is a serious problem,” She maintains. “We also have the FDA’s decision to allow the morning after pill to be available without a prescription.”

Wright says that decision is keeping many women from getting regular screening for STDs. “…women are not going to their doctor’s to get screened for sexually transmitted diseases,” she clarifies. “Instead they’re able to go to a local pharmacy and pick up a drug that is actually not that effective – even at preventing pregnancy.”

The CWA spokeswoman says the CDC study shows there is also a need to reach out to the African-American community “with good public health policies to insure that they are being given full information as to the risks of indiscriminate sexual activity, and the help that is available incase they find themselves with the consequences that come from indiscriminate sexual activity.”

Wright says the government should stop funding sex-ed programs that encourage teen sexual activity and the FDA ought to require that the morning-after pill only be obtained after a medical exam “for the woman’s own good.”

The results of the STD study were released at a CDC conference in Chicago that – according to pro-family groups – promotes a negative view of abstinence-only education.

Folks this just ain’t good. And for as long as we have been told that the Catholic Church is foolish and unhealthy in its theology of sexuality and that more education and more condoms will make us all happy well-balanced libertines… This simply is not proving to be the case.

What do the alternatives continue to demonstrate? All the condoms in all the world…

 Saint Joseph, most chaste spouse of the Virgin, pray for us.

H/T: American Papist

The move toward same-sex marriage in Christian Churches is unrelenting. Methodist congregations, including this prominent one, are particularly creative at sidestepping denominational law. Christian Newswire reports:

The prominent United Methodist church formerly attended by Bill and Hillary Clinton has announced that it will begin to host services that recognize same-sex unions. According to Foundry United Methodist Church of Washington, D.C., homosexual couples can have their associations recognized and honored at the church beginning this month.

The 7.9 million-member United Methodist Church officially prohibits any ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions and involve United Methodist pastors or church buildings. United Methodism affirms God’s love and civil rights for all people, while also affirming marriage as the lifelong union of man and woman.

IRD Director of UMAction Mark Tooley commented:

“The United Methodist Discipline clearly prohibits celebrating homosexual unions. By providing worship leadership and a church building, Foundry United Methodist Church is doing everything short of an exchange of vows. This is clearly a violation of the spirit of the Discipline.

SISTERS OF THE GOSPEL OF LIFE

“Inspired by the Gospel of Life we feel called as individuals with our own unique gifts to address creatively and imaginatively and in a way that is radical and dynamic, the needs of Church and society today.

These specific needs concern combating the culture of death by creating a civilisation of love. Our primary mission is to centre our lives on Jesus Christ through a call to personal holiness achieved by a life of prayer and action, the contemplative dimension of which focuses on personal and community prayer, the Sacrifice of the Mass and Adoration.

Through our contemplation, we lovingly embrace the joy of the Cross in the total surrender of our lives. Our community aims to be a witness to the world that Christ came that we might have life and have it to the full.

Each is called to reach a personal freedom through poverty, chastity and obedience and in living lives of simplicity and truth. The community should seek to use the gifts of each member of the community for the greater glory of God, the joy of the individual and the salvation of the world, always in constant fidelity to the Holy Father and the Magisterium of the Church.

The main apostolate is the promotion of the dignity of the human being, particularly as regards the role of the family, the sanctity of motherhood, a renewed understanding of the complementarity of the sexes and catechesis. Our prime model in this is Our Lady, Mother of the Church.”

Sisters Of The Gospel Of Life
gospeloflifesisters.wordpress.com

106 Dixon Av
Glasgow,
G42 8EL, UK

+44 141 422 2634

I saw this and it made me chuckle with memories of watching gradeschool filmstrips. It was a treat to be the one who got to advance the filmstrip to the next frame… At least I thought it was. We were a long way from today when my nieces and nephews of the age I was then have blogs with readers in other countries.

It also sounds like the voice of the narrator is computer generated. It isn’t half as fun as the records and cassette tapes that used to accompany some of the film strips.

But the fact that these sorts of educational materials were out there, helping to educate young people on the value of large families and brothers and sisters is a telling and intersting thing. How very different is this from US culture today?

Posted over at Musings of a Pertinacious Papist:

With an eye on Russia’s dismally low birth-rate, a youth movement run by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Kremlin sponsored a “procreation camp” this past summer. Held 200 miles from Moscow, the two-week camp was reportedly attended by 10,000 uniformed youngsters. Following instructions in physical fitness and exercises, couples repaired — or should we say “paired off” — to a special part of dormitory tents arranged in the shape of a heart, which was called the “Love Oasis,” where they were encouraged to start “procreating for the motherland.” The camp culminated in a mass wedding of twenty-five couples, who were ready to make the “ultimate expression of devotion to the motherland” (The Daily Mail, July 29, 2007; quoted by Michael S. Rose in “The News You May Have Missed, New Oxford Review [October 2007], p. 37).

Read more at “Hitl … I mean Putin’s Youth (Nashi): Sex for the motherland: Russian youths encouraged to procreate at camp,” by Edward Lucas (The Postnational Monitor, July 29, 2007).

Consider also: Mother Russia now sees more abortions than babies born

Russian Abortion Killing and Sterilizing Millions; Demographic Collapse Likely to be Worse than Previously Predicted

Here are 12 myths every Catholic should be able to expose.How many can you answer?

1. Christianity is no better than any other faith. All religions lead to God.
2. Why should I believe the Bible? The Old and New Testaments contradict each other countless times.
3. I don’t need to confess my sins to a priest. I can go straight to God.
4. People’s memories of their past lives prove that reincarnation is true…and that the Christian view of Heaven and Hell is not.
5. Properly interpreted, the Bible does not condemn homosexuality.
6. If the Church truly followed Jesus, they’d sell their lavish art, property, and architecture, and give the money to the poor.
7. Catholics should follow their conscience in all things…whether it’s abortion, birth control, or women’s ordination.
8. Dissent is actually a good thing, since we should all keep our minds open to new ideas.
9. There’s no such thing as absolute truth. What’s true for you may not be true for me.
10. I don’t need to go to Church. As long as I’m a good person, that’s all that really matters.
11. Natural Family Planning is just the Catholic version of birth control.
12. Someone can be pro-choice and Catholic at the same time.

[For ANSWERS from Crisis magazine's editor, Deal Hudson, click here.]

H/T: Dr. Philip Blosser’s Homepage

We’re All Getting Married: The New Theological Synthesis

“She asked him one question, ‘What is your religion?’”

“You don’t understand Mr. Bonniville, my Catholic faith is the greatest thing I have and I am not going to do anything in the world to weaken it.”

Where did that go from there? We got ourselves a Catholic… Then we got ourselves Dominican.

How many Catholics do you think he got from there?

Dear faithful, do you think about how your efforts today stand in the light of eternity?

Do you think about how your representation of the importance of your faith resonate through the ages?

If this side of the Beatific Vision we were granted the graces to see and understand the effects of our witness, we could easily fall to pride. I believe that.

But can we sustain, with quiet confidence, that our end (which should be always before us) is of singular importance?

Hold unto you faith. Even when it seems insignificant, there is nothing more significant than that!

If Miss Elisabeth would not have stood firm in her Catholic Faith, would Mr. Boniwell have converted?

If he had not converted, would they have married and had children, leading to this magnificent Son of St. Dominic?

If it had not been for this fine Father of the Order of Preachers - serving as a chaplain in the US Army in WW1 -who would have been a chaplain to hear a last confession or offer last rites to the soldier that needed it?<

The influence and witness you take today - this very day - in your “chance” meetings, will echo through the ages. So as you go along ask yourself: “How does this look - sub specie æternitais - in the light of eternity?”

One day we will all find out.

Yesterday I attended the wedding of one of the first friends I made when I moved to this city some 4 years ago. A Catholic wedding between two Catholics, it was a joy to be there with them for such a special moment.

Join me in prayers for them and for all the newlyweds out there. It ain’t gonna be easy, but surely it will be worth it…

For those with the inclination, when thinking about marriage, it might be a good thing to read or re-read Arcanum The Encyclical of Pope Leo XIII on Christian Marriage.

From there you may enjoy the following video from a Franciscan U. of Steubenville student. I found it a rather fun & toe-tapping little number. If this is the state of dating at FUS, I rather suspect in the future we will be finding its student body to composed of many, many children of alumni! Enjoy.

HT:http://youngfogeys.blogspot.com/