The New Zealand Herald reports:
Gianna Beretta Molla died in 1962 aged 39, one week after giving birth to a healthy baby. Early in her pregnancy, Molla discovered she had a tumour in her womb but decided against treatment because it would have involved an abortion. Molla's husband, 91, and her four children, including her last born, Gianna Emanuela, were among 50,000 people in St Peter's Square for yesterday's ceremony.
Gianna Emanuela is now a doctor specialising in geriatric medicine. Shortly before the birth, Molla told her doctors the baby's life was more important than her own. "If a decision must be made between my life and the child's, don't hesitate. I insist you choose the child's. Save it."
It is certainly laudable when a woman risks her life for her children, but sainthood is something different. Molla's decision left her husband without a wife and her children without a mother - not to mention removing a dedicated doctor from society. Making her a saint is a statement from the Roman Catholic Church that her behavior should serve as a model for all Catholics around the world.
What sort of message does this send? That the life of a fetus is more important than that of woman? That giving birth is more important than the decades-long task of raising children? That procreation is more important that having a life and a marriage? It's not sufficient to say that she simply risked her life for her children because there are plenty of examples of that outside of the context of abortion - Molla was chosen because of the abortion issue, which means that the above messages are implicit in her canonization.
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This blog entry gives credence to my understandings regarding the ignorance of atheists. It is most appalling, yet predictable, that the writer knows so very little about the canonization process and yet is not only willing to teach others about it but feed them such mindless errors. She was not canonized on account of sacrificing her child’s life. And as intellectual atheism represents the depth of stupidity, you would do well to read more on any number of topics on which I am certain you blissfully misinform others.
Feel free to show how.
Feel free to point out any errors about the process of canonization.
I didn’t say she was.
On the other hand, you might want to re-read the piece to be sure you actually know and understand what was written before launching into a series of unsupported accusations and personal attacks.
Since you didn’t identify any actual errors not point out ways in which the piece could have been better, it’s hard not to think that the entire point of your comment was, in fact, to use an opportunity to launch into anonymous personal attacks. What would such behavior say about a person’s character and intellect?
Maybe you should rethink your life and how it is effecting others. Saints are people who have done something selfless for a world that needs more compassion and faith. Saints are those who set examples for all people including you. Maybe if you were acually educated in all the many sufferings throughout the ages people have endured for God you would understand how undeniable he truly is. I don’t know of any athiests who have given up everything including thier lives for their beliefs and that I believe speaks for itself. I am 16 years old Mr.Cline and I have enough mind to know that God is real and he does in fact care even about you. Killing innocent children is wrong. Every conception is a blessing and should be regaurded as such. If Gianna had been selfish and chosen to save her own life instead of her child’s, there would not have been another great doctor in today’s society and neither would ther be her strengthening message to young girls like myself. I believe that you are going to have a lot of answering to do someday Mr. Cline. But just know that you won’t have to answer for me. I have enough faith and enough brains to know that my God is the one and only god. Not you or any other secular teacher or friend can ever take that away from me and all who have gone before me to give all of themselves for the better of humanity and their true Lord and Savior!May God bless you and have mercy on you. May you find him someday before it is too late.
So far, I seem to be doing pretty well.
Leaving one’s children without a mother isn’t very selfless or compassionate.
So when people suffer for a belief, that makes the belief true?
Maybe if you had a little bit of knowledge about basic logic, you would recognize how undeniably fallacious that statement is.
Yes, your ignorance of atheists does speak for itself. So does your complete failure at basic logic.
So you reject the relevance of the suffering of all the people who believed in other gods. Your already bad logic just got several times worse.
So as I understand it, your argument is: that Gianna Molla shouldn’t have deprived her children of a mother and her husband of a wife by sacrificing her life for a “fetus”, and that the Catholic Church shouldn’t have condoned and promoted this behavior by canonizing her?
“What sort of message does this send? That the life of a fetus is more important than that of woman?” That giving birth is more important than the decades-long task of raising children? That procreation is more important that having a life and a marriage? .
This is only a concern if you are arguing that this is a fetus instead of a human person. Both the Catholic Church and Gianna Molla believed it to be a human person and their actions were understandable and laudable in those circumstances. Gianna was sacrificing her life for another which was elevated even higher because it was in circumstances in which many people would have excused her for opting for an abortion.
“It’s not sufficient to say that she simply risked her life for her children because there are plenty of examples of that outside of the context of abortion – Molla was chosen because of the abortion issue, which means that the above messages are implicit in her canonization.”
A prerequisite for sainthood is that there are two confirmed posthumous miracles. While there may or may not be many instances of mothers giving their lives for their children even the Catholic Church doesn’t pretend to hand out miracles with liberality. If the Catholic Church set those miracles up merely to bring up the abortion issue then it would be a problem but one of corruption, not of abortion.