Barbara Castro Garcia
Posted on 07/13/2012 2:34:37 PM PDT by NYer
Barbara Castro Garcia
July 13, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – One day early in 2010, newlyweds Ignacio Cabezas and Barbara Castro Garcia were sitting in a café eating breakfast. The couple both had smiles on their faces that, in the words of Ignacio, were “impossible to erase.”
After 11 years of dating, the couple had gotten married several months before, and now they had just found out they were expecting their first child. “We were crazy about getting married and once married, we wanted very much to be parents,” Ignacio remembers.
Little did they know that this pregnancy, which had already brought them so much joy, was also the beginning of a saga that would test their faith to the limit—and ultimately take the life of the young mother.
Four months into the pregnancy, Barbara took a trip to the dentist complaining of a sore in her mouth. The dentist sent her on to a specialist, who diagnosed her with mouth cancer.
The couple was presented with a conundrum: Barbara urgently needed life-saving treatment, but the treatment had the potential to harm their unborn child.
Bolstered by her Catholic faith Barbara, who worked as a journalist in the communications office of the Catholic diocese of Cordoba, made the difficult decision to forgo all treatments except for a surgical procedure that left her in immense pain.
But Ignacio says that throughout the ordeal, Barbara remained strong. “My wife said from the beginning that our daughter would be born the day that God wanted, not one before,” he says.
A statement on the diocese of Cordoba’s website remembers Barbara’s faith at this time. “Anchored in the heart of Christ, the inexhaustible source of love, Barbara opted first for the life of her daughter,” the diocese says. “At all times she has maintained an unwavering faith, and has been the encouragement and hope for all who have surrounded her during this long and painful illness.”
Their child, Barbarita, was born on Nov. 1, 2010 – a healthy baby and the source of much consolation to the couple.
But within days the pains of Barbara’s cancer were flaring up, and the couple went to Madrid to see a surgeon. The news wasn’t good. The surgeon told Barbara that there was little hope, and that he was amazed she even survived as long as she had.
Thus began the grueling rounds of chemotherapy and other treatments that left her without a tongue and part of her jaw, rendering her incapable of speaking or eating. She had to be fed through a tube.
Ultimately the cancer would get the upper hand, and earlier this month Barbara died, after having sacrificed everything for her child.
The Spanish publication La Gaceta reports that it spoke to Ignacio the day after Barbara’s death, and that he seemed “serene.”
He told the paper that he feels “a strength of faith that I had never felt before.”
“I feel invincible…God is holding on to me and he doesn’t want to let me go.”
In part of a letter from Ignacio to his wife, quoted by La Gaceta, Ignacio wrote: “I sensed we were going to suffer a lot, that it would be very hard and probably very long, but I also assured you that, no matter how hard it was, afterwards I would make sure you were the happiest person in the world, that all the effort was worth it, that we would enjoy our daughter and that we would have to prepare ourselves for an uncertain and horrible period.”
The statement on the Cordoba diocese’s website concludes: “The Good Father, Lord of Charity, who embraced [Barbara] tenderly in her lifetime, today opened the doors of Paradise. The angels have come to her and the Blessed Virgin gave her the crown of victory, because she, better than anyone, knows what it takes to give her life for love.”
For his part, Ignacio says he simply wants to “honor her as she deserves.”
The story of Barbara’s heroism closely parallels that of Chiara Corbella, an Italian woman who died just last month, also after foregoing cancer treatment to save the life of her unborn baby.
“You’re own personal interpretation of Scripture, which violates Scripture itself:”
When you stand in the court of heaven on that great day of judgment, you will stand alone. Your popes and priests won’t be there to hold your hand. That you relied on their teaching won’t be a defense. You had better understand God’s way of salvation from Scripture for yourself. Eternity is too long and hell is too real to place your complete trust in any man.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.” —Ephesians 2:8-9
“Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.”—Romans 3:20
Why is your personal interpetation of scripture superior to the churches interpretation?
The bible does not say that we are supposed to interpret scripture ourselves (sola scriptura) The bible DOES NOT SAY that anywhere!! Timothy does tell us to hold fast to the traditions handed down - the opposite of interpreting for ourselves.
The every man for himself position creates chaos and incoherence.
I don’t rest solely on my own idea of what Scripture teaches. Rather I do what search the Scriptures for myself to see that they agree with anything I am being taught.
According to Acts 17: 11, Paul and Silas preached at Berea, and the inhabitants “... received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” The Bereans measured everything they were taught by the Scriptures...and I attempt to do the same. Of course I consider the learned opinions of Christian scholars, but I don’t accept any teaching at face value. My soul is too valuable to entrust it to the opinions of other men because I’m responsible before the Lord on my own. I don’t naively believe everything I’m told just because someone claims authority. The Word is my authority!
When Timothy said hold fast to your traditions do you really think he meant for you to hold fast to traditions that contradict the clear meaning and teaching of Scripture?
God’s eternal blessings on her and her family.
Ah, the old “making it personal” accusation. Call the waambulance.
Hey .45 Long Colt — it is a monumental waste of your time to engage FR Papists. Their manic fanaticism about their denomination prohibits them from any meaningful conversation.
The Catholic Church banned corrupted bibles such as the Tyndale and Wycliffe Bibles. These bibles contained not only gross translation errors, but they also contained heretical commentaries in an attempt to undermine the Church.
According to Saint Thomas More: “finding errors in Tyndale’s book (Bible) was like studying to find water in the sea.” King Henry VIII, himself, in 1531 passed an edict
prohibiting and expelling the Tyndale Bible from among his subjects.
At the time of the Reformation there were 14 translations of the Bible in German alone, all authorized and approved by the Catholic Church. In addition, the Church had also approved 11 Italian, 10 French, and 2 Bohemian translations,
and one Flemish and one Russian translation. The Catholic Church did all it could to prevent corrupted translations from spreading. The sole purpose was to assure that
people would know the Word of God and not that of mere men, just as today people reject the Jehovah’s Witness New World Translation. Luther’s Bible was heretical because: (1) he inserted the word alone in Romans 3:28 to distort the meaning, ie., he made it read “For we hold that a man is justified by faith alone apart from the observance of the law.” (Compare with James 2:24), (2) he rejected the Deuterocanonicals as uninspired, and (3) he eliminated the books of Hebrews, James, Jude and Revelation.
Asked by whose authority he changed the Bible after 1500 years, Luther declared,“By my authority.” That is, he simply made it up!
Salvation is indeed from Christ through Grace, but we each have a unique plan for Salvation. God created us as unique creatures, each with unique circumstances. As I illustrated in my earlier post Scripture identifies a number of possible things that facilitate Salvation. Many require our actions and cooperation, i.e.; works. Good works are required by God requires obedience to his commands (Mt 6:1-21, 1 Cor 3:8, 13-15) and promises to reward us with eternal life if we obey (Mt 25:34-40, Rom 2:6-7, Gal 6:6-10, Jas 1:12). But even our obedience is impossible without God's grace; even our good works are God's gift (Rom 5:5, Phil 2:13) and only direct evidence of the Grace.
We must each examine our daily lives and take an inventory of the Fruit of the Holy Spirit evident in our actions and our thoughts. Where these Fruits are absent so too is Grace. Grace is given to us so that we may cooperate with the Holy Spirit in passing it along and thus multiplying it. The Fruits are the evidence of our passing along the Grace.
Peace be with you
Tyndale pissed off everyone in his day because he attempted to use Scripture to rationalize his political ambitions. Tyndale taught that all secular power and authority rightly proceeds not from a royal class, but from the biblically "elect", which he just happened to be.
What many people dismiss is that until the 16th century there was no "English" language. As divergent as regional accents are today within England they were even more so in the 1500's. People from as little as 50 miles away could not converse with each other. Even Tyndale had to publish his Bible in multiple English dialects.
Peace be with you.
By the year 500, the Bible had been translated into over 500 languages. There was an Anglo-Saxon translation of the New Testament in 995. I wouldn’t call that trying to keep the Scriptures from the comman man. The Church had no objection to bible translations. They did object to heretical bible translations that left out books from the approved canon or mistranslated egregiosly. I guess people (on both sides) took heresy very seriously back then!
Matthew 25:31-46
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.
34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’
40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’
Never once does Jesus say that the “sheep” are given their reward because they merely believed in Him. In fact, Jesus said elsewhere that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” Now in Matthew 25 Jesus is saying that those who DO something for the least of His brothers and sisters will enter heaven.
Why do you think it’s only works OR faith? It’s both! Catholics are NOT taught it’s only works - we are saved by grace alone, but the good works we do are the result of our faith in Christ and our relationship to Him.
Catholics believe that Salvation is a free gift, this grace includes the necessity of good works.
St. James 17 - So faith also, if it have not works it is dead in itself.
St. James 20 But wilt thou know O Vain man, that faith without works is dead?
St. James 24 - Do you see that by works a man is justified and not by faith only???
Clearly sacred scripture takes both positions, as you point in the justified by grace passages. The correct conclusion is that Salvation requires BOTH.
“we are saved by grace alone, but the good works we do are the result of our faith in Christ and our relationship to Him”
Friend, that’s precisely what I believe. That’s protestant doctrine. That’s what your church wanted to kill Martin Luther for teaching.
How can you be so sure that YOURS is the more correct position? Isn't it hubris to assume, in either direction, what God might do?
Based on His sure Word, Suzie. Where He has spoken in His Word we can place our trust. The inspired and inerrant Bible is the authority. He speaks through His Word. My hope is in Christ as revealed in the Scriptures, not a church.
Yes, we are indeed friends - siblings in fact - in Christ. I think we often focus more on what separates us than what joins us. Judgements were harsh in the Reformation for both Protestants and Catholics, with much to be condemned on both sides. It is very easy for tempers to be inflamed when convictions are deeply held, and it was a very violent time.
But I state again, the Catholic church does indeed teach that we are saved by grace alone, with our good works being the result. We are called to show charity to others at all times by the works we do as we become the hands and feet of Christ on this earth. Peace!
She took up her cross and followed it. Now I do not presume to say she is “in heaven,” but humanly speaking, she puts my faith to shame.
Of course there is something we can DO: believe , obey.
You mean that you believe in a book before you believe in God? But someone had to make the book available. Someone you trusted.
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