Posted on 06/25/2012 4:06:32 PM PDT by wagglebee
ROME, June 25, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) - When Chiara Corbella learned she was pregnant with her third child, it was a great joy that ended in bittersweet tragedy for the young Italian mother, who died this month after postponing cancer treatment to save her cherished baby.
n a story that echoes that of Roman Catholic saint Gianna Molla, Chiara and her husband Enrico Petrillo embarked on a remarkable journey of faith in 2010 when they learned that they were pregnant with Francisco - and that Chiara had an aggressive form of cancer, reports the Catholic News Agency.
The news was especially poignant for the couple since both of Francisco’s elder siblings, Maria and David, had been lost shortly after birth. In fact, Chiara and Enrico had become popular pro-life speakers for their stories of their few treasured moments with each of their first two children before their brief lives came to an end.
This time, doctors said Francisco was healthy and developing normally. So when Chiara was advised to begin treatment immediately for her cancer, she declined, waiting for Francisco to be born in May of last year. The cancer progressed over the following year, depriving Chiara of sight in one eye before she finally succumbed on June 13, 2012.
“I am going to heaven to take care of Maria and David, you stay here with Dad. I will pray for you,” Chiara wrote to baby Francisco in a letter, one week before her death.
Chiara’s funeral Mass was celebrated by the Vicar General of Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, who called Chiara “the second Gianna Beretta.”
Saint Gianna Molla was an Italian pediatrician who died in 1962 from complications caused by a fibroma on her uterus, after she refused both an abortion and a hysterectomy because she was pregnant with her fourth child.
Although a tragedy to outside observers - and certainly also for Enrico, to whom Chiara was happily married – the couple’s last conversations reveal, in the young husband’s words, “a story of love on the cross” that seemed to conquer even death.
“The truth is that this cross – if you embrace it with Christ – ceases to be as ugly as it looks. If you trust in him, you discover that this fire, this cross, does not burn, and that peace can be found in suffering and joy in death,” said Enrico, according to CNA. “I spent a lot of time this year reflecting on this phrase from the Gospel that says the Lord gives a cross that is sweet and a burden that is light.
“When I would look at Chiara when she was about to die, I obviously became very upset. But I mustered the courage and a few hours before – it was about eight in the morning, Chiara died at noon – I asked her.
“I said: ‘But Chiara, my love, is this cross really sweet, like the Lord says? She looked at me and she smiled, and in a soft voice she said, ‘Yes, Enrico, it is very sweet.’
“In this sense, the entire family didn’t see Chiara die peacefully, but happily, which is totally different.”
Enrico said he would tell his son Francisco when he was older that “the most important thing in life” is to “let yourself be loved in order to love and die happy,” and that “this is what his mother, Chiara, did.”
“She allowed herself to be loved, and in a certain sense, I think she loved everyone in this way,” he said. “I feel her more alive than ever. To be able to see her die happy was to me a challenge to death.”
Read the full CNA story here.
“When I would look at Chiara when she was about to die, I obviously became very upset. But I mustered the courage and a few hours before – it was about eight in the morning, Chiara died at noon – I asked her.
“I said: ‘But Chiara, my love, is this cross really sweet, like the Lord says? She looked at me and she smiled, and in a soft voice she said, ‘Yes, Enrico, it is very sweet.’
What a beautiful story.
God Bless this wonderful family!
Striaght to heaven!!!! No time inpurgatory when one sacrfices one’s life for another!!! Straight to heaven!!
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I need new glasses mine got all fogged up reading this story.
Bless this Dad and child.
I worked in the records department of a large hospital when I was first married. I remember a young doctor coming into my office to work on his records.
As it happened I was trying to decipher the records of one of his patients in order to “code” it so I knew in which catagory to put it. I pointed out to him that there were indications that this was an OB-GYN (obstetrics) record, but there were also indications that it was a CA (cancer) Patient.
“Which is it?” I asked.
“Both”, he replied with tears in his eyes. He went on to explain that treatment for the cancer would most likely cause a miscarriage, but to postpone treatment most likely would result in the tumor growing faster because of the pregnancy, possibly killing both of them.
“I don’t know what to do,” he added.
This occurred in the years before there were modern treatments for cancer and before abortions were legalized. I do not know the final outcome because I left that job and moved away. But, I have thought about it often.
True.
I found that to be a very sad... yet beautiful story.
I had to take a break from these threads for awhile. The stories about indiscriminate murder of innocent life was sapping strength from me. This story rejuvenates me.
God is good.
BFL
It’s straight to heaven anyways, when you have Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, no such thing as purgatory.
Ahhh, we Catholics believe one must be cleansed of their sins before they go to heaven....Baptists disagree.....ALL Christians go to heaven they think, no matter what sins they have on their souls when they die....then they say that God can’t look at sin, which is contradictory if one would think about for two seconds.
I cannot stand reading the leftists’ takeover language of “they were pregnant”. It’s ridiculous, plainly untrue, and a rewrite of reality like “gay rights” and “gay marriage”.
“the most important thing in life” is to “let yourself be loved in order to love and die happy,”
wow.
I work with ‘at risk’ teenage boys. This quote is going on my wall. Simple and true. They, had/have mothers that are clueless about what love means.
Truth and beauty.
—I don’t believe in purgatory. ever. This woman is the picture of genuine love.
“What a beautiful story.
God Bless this wonderful family! “
I completely agree. I’d say that He did bless them. Thank you very much for sharing this.
God Bless this woman, her precious child and husband. Amen.
There is nothing you can DO that will get you there.....there is no waiting list, you can't purchase indulgences from the Pope, there are no magic Hail Mary's or Oh My Father's that will get you there. Faith and Faith alone (1 John 5). You don't have to have an intermediary to talk to God to confess. The Bible tells us to call no man on Earth "Father" because you have but one, and that is your Father in Heaven. (Matthew 23:9)
That is the difference between the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament required an advocate on your behalf; the New Testament is about the fulfillment of the the prophesy of Christ and the Law. From that, there is a personal relationship with God and Salvation through Christ (ie there would be nothing on your soul as you're forgiven if you ask for it and accept His forgiveness).
God CAN see sin and does look at sin and it appalls Him. However, our Faith is what saves us and writes us into The Book of Life. For if we know Jesus, He will confess us to the Father and we will be saved. But it isn't for the faint of heart, you can't be a cafeteria Christian; you have to actually believe and have faith.
When Christ lives in you, as clearly this woman had Him-—THAT is who our Father sees. THAT is our cleansing. Jesus alone. No other and nothing we can do or say
Praise God and his tender mercies!! What a lovely, lovely story.
People really believe that? Then why did Christ die for our sins? Was his sacrifice not perfect? Did God not send his only son to die for nothing? I can’t see how one can read the bible and come to the conclusion that Christ’s death was somehow not good enough to redeem us.
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