Anti-abortion icon among six new saints

[last1standing]

http://www.salon.com/mwt/wire/2004/05/16/saints/index.html

May 16, 2004 | VATICAN CITY (AP) -- Pope John Paul II named six new saints Sunday, including a woman who became a symbol for abortion opponents because she refused to end her pregnancy despite warnings that it could kill her.

The Vatican has long championed the case of Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian pediatrician who died in 1962 at the age of 39 -- a week after giving birth to her fourth child. Doctors had told her it was dangerous to proceed with the pregnancy because she had a tumor in her uterus, but she insisted on carrying the baby to term.

<snip>

"May our era rediscover, by the example of Gianna Beretta Molla, the pure, chaste and fertile beauty of conjugal love, lived as a response to the divine calling," he said.

<snip>

In the case of Beretta Molla, the Vatican says the first miracle needed for her to be beatified concerned a sickly Brazilian woman who recovered in 1977 after her fourth pregnancy. The Vatican says a second miracle occurred in 2000 when a healthy child was born to a young Brazilian woman who had lost her amniotic fluid.

<end>

I've often defended the Catholic Church because I believe that everyone's religion should be respected. However, this pope and his cronies have gone on a crusade to push women's rights back to the middle ages.

I'm also sick to death of these bishops who are trying to deny communion to politicians, and now voters, who do not walk in lockstep with them. It's time to either reform the Catholic Church or remove their tax exempt status.

last1standing.

[RoeBear]

1. Well for starters...

...you're never going to take their tax exempt status away.

They also have the right to deny communion to any body they want to deny it to.

The only way they will change is from within.

[Warpy]

4. I'm sure they will change

...but it took them over 500 years to apologize to Galileo's corpse.

That bunch of ignorant old men lost me many years ago, when I was 10, and was told that abortion was wrong even if childbirth killed the mom because the baby just might be MALE. Really. This is where those old boys are really at.

The more rigid they become and the more arbitrary their standards of what is and is not acceptable in candidates and the people who vote for them, the fewer people they will be able to count on for monetary support.

The church is an old boys' club and has always been supported on the backs of their female parishoners, to whom they have always been incredibly cruel. I would not be sad to see it wither and die in the US.

[SharonAnn]

19. And that is why I won't attend anything or donate anything

I will not enable them to continue.

I was silly enough to go back twice and then the same kind of disrespect for women happened again and I said, "That's it!".

[KittyWampus]

2. I've Also Defended The Church & Pope...

but no longer can stomach the hypocracy, ignorance and corruption.

Lay people are NOT doing their Church or fellow parishoners any good by remaining silent.

The Church is not a democracy but even a hierarchy demands that the foundation at the base of the pyramiid be willing to remain stable.

[cally]

3. I'm repulsed that the 'saintly woman'

is one who is an incubator. Some of the earlier saints were women who killed themselves because they were raped. I thought the catholic church had progressed but not as much as I had hoped.

From the article:

"May our era rediscover, by the example of Gianna Beretta Molla, the pure, chaste and fertile beauty of conjugal love, lived as a response to the divine calling," he said.

[Blasphemer]

5. It's pretty disgusting

I respect a woman's choice. I recall an episode of Oprah years ago featuring a woman who chose to put off Chemo/Radiation because she was pregnant (as opposed to having an abortion) and ended up losing her life because of not being treated when she needed to be. These are extraordinarly difficult decisions and I respect whatever decision is made. However, to canonize someone for making one decision over another is extremely disturbing. It's the same old Virgin/Whore nonsense. A woman's supposed "virtue" and "saintliness" being tied to her womb is just disgusting.

[Baltimoreboy]

20. Their point seems to be

That she risked her life and lost it to save the life of another. Not nefarious, just brave.

And if you respect choice, you should respect that one.

[Liberal Veteran]

6. Well, I must admit to being torn over this.

Part of me respects her choice, but another part of me wonders if the children were really better off with a dead mother.

[last1standing]

7. I respect her choice.

That's the point of being pro-choice; the woman decides. What I'm against is making a saint out of a woman who did nothing other than die. This pope is telling all Catholic women that they are nothing more than vehicles for babies and that if they must die in the attempt to squeeze yet another one out, then so be it.

Also, even the terminally gullible must be a bit cynical over the "miracles" attributed to this new saint. She died in 1962 in Italy yet saved two women in Brazil in 1977 and 2000. Does she have something against Italian women maybe? This is such an incredible stretch that it actually made me laugh out loud.

[zoeybug]

8. a different perspective

She was made a saint because she chose to protect the life of her baby, even though it cost her own life. Many parents feel the same way - they would protect their children at all costs.

Whatever your position on the issue of abortion, you should be able to see that she was a brave woman. It's not true that she "did nothing other than die". She gave her life for another person, and is an example of selflessness. This is why she's being made a saint, not because the pope want to tell women "they are nothing more that vehicles for babies".

[cap]

9. no... the Pope wants women to follow her example...

and not consider abortion.

[progressivebydesign]

10. She chose an embryo over being a mother to her other children..

Hmm... it sounds so brave when you read about it. Then you think.. what a second.. she already has a bunch of children. Now the children, including the new baby will be raised without a mother. The father would have been mother to, what, five kids including a newborn? I think the husband would have rather had a wife, rather than another baby. The brainwashing of the male controlled relgion goes so far... I would never be a part of a religion run by men, telling women what to do.

In a way, you can say it was her choice.. Did her other children have a say in it?

[last1standing]

12. Even if I accept your argument...

Which I can't really say I do, then I would have to say that history is riddled with those who gave up their lives for the sake of others and yet the pope didn't make them saints. This was done to make the point that women are supposed to be vehicles for babies and nothing more. They're not even supposed to enjoy the process of making them.

If someone thinks that abortion is wrong then I respect their decision. To be honest, I think that abortion is wrong except in extreme cases. But, you see, that's my decision and those are my ethics. It's not my business to tell others that they should follow my moral compass. As a man, I'll never make the decision to have an abortion for myself, and I'll sure as Hell never make that decision for someone else so label me at Pro-choice and proud of it.

last1standing.

[zanana]

11. They sure are cranking out saints these days...

I thought that a "miracle" was somebody levitating or rising from the dead or something. We all know someone (or have had a personal experience) with something described as a "miracle". I've had a few. Sure doesn't make me a saint.

[jdj]

13. This is what is called a deadbeat Mom.

She willfully abandoned three children to mother a fourth, then abandoned that one as well.

I guess with all the pedophile priests that no longer qualify for canonization, the pickings for sainthood are getting slim.

But truthfully, the more insane and ridiculous the church and the right gets, the better. They are getting more and more transparent everyday, which will only work against them.

[bleedingheart]

14. It was her choice to do what she did...

but as a mother I can't imagine not fighting to live to raise my other children.

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. Where are the children of Gianna Beretta Molla now?

Maybe since she was a pediatrician, it's not likely that they'd have to go on welfare. Did she have a husband to help raise them, or did they get carted off to Grandma's or Auntie's?

Molla made the only choice she could, because it was her choice to make...not some man's.

[Solly Mack]

16. She made a choice. ..and choice is what it's all about.

it really is that simple...

on edit. speaking to sainthood...as I don't follow any saints, pray to any saints nor even give a rat's patootie about who is and isn't a saint...well..you get the point.

[ElectroPrincess]

17. I Agree

I'm mostly disappointed with these rogue Bishops in the USA and their proclamations. I love the Catholic faith but do not appreciate this posturing by a few men who's hidden agenda (some even to themselves) is to relegate women to second class status.

It really creeps me out to see so many "old men" almost turn rabid when preaching the sin of abortion, yet would not take a courageous stand to end state sponsored executions (death penalty). It's bizarre behavior and does not serve our beautiful faith in the appropriate light.

Yes, I understand your frustration 100%. To make you smile: "You're preaching to the choir" with me.

The Church's Targeting of Kerry is a lesson in hypocrisy:
http://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=1431

[Matilda]

18. Another example of the way this Pope is politicising the papacy.

He's rushing through the canonisation of people whose religious
practices coincide with his own, whilst sidelining others with
whom he might disagree. So we have the elevation to sainthood
of the founder of Opus Dei, Josemaria Escriva, in less than thirty
years after his death, breaking the old rule that at least fifty
years should elapse before the canonisation process begins. Yet
Opus Dei is detested - and sometimes feared - by most mainstream
Catholics, being seen as almost a modern inquisition. Ditto the
beatification of Mother Teresa, whom this Pope much admired, although
many have questioned her aims and methods. But dear old John XXIII,
a model of humanity, tolerance and generosity, has only just been
beatified, because he convened the Second Vatican Council which did
so much to modernise the Church. However, John Paul II disagrees
with much that was accomplished by Vatican II, and has been doing
his best to backpeddle over the last ten years or so - so he has no
time for the man who began opening the windows of the Church to let
in the light - hence he's dragging his feet over the canonisation
of Pope John.

As I said, it's all about politics.