"Choose the child, I insist on it, save the baby."

Carol Zimmerman of Catholic News Service has written a fascinating piece about Laura Molla, daughter of St. Gianna Beretta Molla:

St. Gianna, often called the "pro-life saint," was canonized in 2004 by Pope John Paul II for having put her unborn child's life before her own. In 1962, when she was pregnant with her fourth child, doctors discovered a large ovarian tumor that required surgery. Although surgical procedures at the time called for removal of her entire uterus, Gianna Molla, 39, insisted surgeons only remove what was necessary and allow her baby to live.

She pleaded with family and doctors: "If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate. Choose the child, I insist on it, save the baby."

When she died of an infection -- a week after giving birth to Gianna Emanuela -- the Italian saint left behind not only her newborn, but her husband, Pietro, and three other children including Laura, who was just shy of her third birthday.

Molla, who now works in the furniture business in Italy, said that even through she didn't know her mother, she has learned a lot about her in recent years.

What particularly stands out is how much her mother loved life. She enjoyed skiing, hiking, going to the theater and wearing the latest fashions. She juggled a career as a medical doctor with being a wife and mother. Through reading her mother's letters and notes on spirituality, Molla has also come to understand the depth of her mother's faith.

Read the entire piece.

Saint Gianna Molla: Wife, Mother, Doctor by Pietro Molla and Elio Guerriero, tells the story of St. Gianna's life and sacrificial death. The foreword, "Saint Gianna: A Model For Mothers," was written by Helen Hull Hitchcock; here's part of it:

"A woman of exceptional love, an outstanding wife and mother, she gave witness in her daily life to the demanding values of the Gospel." In his homily on the occasion of her beatification, April 24, 1994, Pope John Paul II proposed Gianna Beretta Molla as a model for all mothers: "By holding up this woman as an exemplar of Christian perfection, we would like to extol all those high-spirited mothers of families who give themselves completely to their family, who suffer in giving birth, who are prepared for every labor and every kind of sacrifice, so that the best they have can be given to others."

In canonizing Gianna Beretta Molla this spring [of 2004], the Church officially recognized the extraordinary sanctity of a woman who chose to live an ordinary life-as a professional and, later, as a wife and mother. Though she had once considered entering a religious order, instead she practiced medicine (receiving her medical degree in 1949, and her specialty in pediatrics in 1952). She devoted herself to caring for her patients, and her selflessness and dedication as a physician endeared her to the people. But it was not only her practice of medicine that influenced them. She regarded her profession as a mission through which she could aid and nurture both bodies and souls. The young doctor's devotion to her Catholic faith was well known in her community, and especially her instruction of young Catholic girls in their faith.

Gianna meditated long and prayerfully on God's will for her. "What is a vocation?" she wrote: "It is a gift from God-it comes from God Himself! Our concern, then, should be to know the will of God. We should enter onto the path that God wills for us, not by 'forcing the door', but when God wills and as God wills." [1] Gianna believed she was called to marriage and * family life, but she waited patiently for God's will to be revealed.

Gianna Beretta did not marry until she was thirty-three years old-to an engineer ten years her senior, Pietro Molla, whose sister had earlier been a patient of the young Dr. Beretta. Letters Gianna wrote during their year-long courtship reveal her deep commitment to this new vocation. The couple married in September 1955. Several days before their wedding, Gianna wrote to Pietro, reflecting on their vocation to marriage: "With God's help and blessing, we will do all we can to make our new family a little cenacle where Jesus will reign over all our affections, desires and actions.... We will be working with God in His creation; in this way we can give Him children who will love Him and serve Him."

Read the entire foreword.

Comments

[Sandra Miesel]

Surely St. Gianna's tumor was on her uterus, not an ovary? Otherwise the medical issues make no sense. By the time she delivered the baby, the risk of uterine rupture was over. A prompt Caesarian would have saved both parties. I've never seen an explanation of why a woman who'd had recent abdominal surgery would go through natural childbirth. Sorry if my comments offend the saint's admirers.

[Ed Peters]

Not at all Sandra. You make a good point.

An important point that I think gets lost in the (fabulous) Gianna story is that her decision to forgo this medical intervention was NOT required by Catholic moral theo (else, we would have canonized someone simply for not sinning) but rather, it was a free choice made in charity. Still, we don't want to leave women (esp. mothers) that G's choice was the ONLY choice a good Catholic could have made.