Meet Chiara Badano,
an average teenager saint
Courtesy of Beata Chiara Luce | Facebook
Bl. Chiara loved playing tennis and listening to pop music.
When we think about saints, we don’t usually think about teenagers who failed math class, stayed out late drinking coffee with friends, and loved listening to the latest pop music sensations. Yet, that describes Chiara Badano, an 18-year old soon-to-be canonized saint.
Badano was born on October 29, 1971, in a small village in Italy. She had a loving family and clung to her Catholic faith from an early age. Her generosity toward the less fortunate was already evident at age 4 when Badano would give away her toys to poor children and eagerly visited the nursing home to comfort the elderly.
At 9 years old she joined a youth group associated with the Catholic lay Focolare movement and was an avid disciple of their spirituality. As she grew older and entered high school, Badano was a popular girl in her class with lots of friends. She frequently played sports, sang, danced and stayed out late with friends. From the outside, she was just an ordinary teenager who loved to have fun.
Then at age 17 Badano felt a sharp pain in her shoulder that was eventually diagnosed as an aggressive bone cancer called osteosarcoma. It spread quickly and she was soon paralyzed, with the likely chance that she would die.
In the midst of the pain Badano possessed a supernatural joy and instead of seeing it as a curse, offered it all as a sacrifice to God. She continually said, “For you, Jesus, if you want it, I want it too!” Badano refused morphine, saying, “It reduces my lucidity, and there’s only one thing I can do now: to offer my suffering to Jesus because I want to share as much as possible in his suffering on the cross.”
Many of her friends visited her in the hospital and said about the experience, “At first we thought we would visit Chiara Luce to keep her spirits up, however, we soon realized that in fact, we were the ones who needed her. Her life was like a magnet drawing us towards her.” One of the doctors said about her, “Through her smile, and through her eyes full of light, she showed us that death doesn’t exist; only life exists.”
Near the end of her short life she said to her mother, “Don’t shed any tears for me. I’m going to Jesus. At my funeral, I don’t want people crying, but singing with all their hearts.” She also asked to be buried wearing a wedding gown, symbolizing how she would be forever united with Jesus in heaven.
Chiara Badano left this world on October 7, 1990, just short of her 19th birthday. She departed to meet Jesus with the words, “Goodbye. Be happy because I’m happy.“
The cause for her canonization was officially opened in 1999 and she was declared “venerable” in 2008. Shortly thereafter Pope Benedict XVI recognized a miracle attributed to her intercession and she was beatified on September 25, 2010. One additional miracle is necessary to pave the way for her to be canonized as a “saint.”
FROM THE TIMES, JULY 18th 2023
ReplyDelete"Woman jailed over lockdown abortion to be freed: Appeal court judges say the case calls for ‘compassion, not punishment’
Seren Hughes Tuesday July 18 2023, 12.35pm, The Times
A woman who was jailed for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy will be released from prison after Court of Appeal judges reduced her sentence and concluded that the case called for “compassion, not punishment”.
She was initially handed a 28-month extended sentence after she admitted illegally procuring her own abortion when she was between 32 and 34 weeks pregnant.
When sentencing her in June, Mr Justice Pepperall said she would serve 14 months in custody and the remainder on licence after her release.
The woman, whom The Times is not naming, appeared at the Court of Appeal in London on Tuesday to challenge her prison sentence. Dame Victoria Sharp, sitting with Lord Justice Holroyde and Mrs Justice Lambert, said her sentence would be reduced to 14 months and that it should be suspended, which means that she will be released from prison. The date of her release is unknown.
“This is a very sad case,” said Sharp. “It is a case that calls for compassion, not punishment.”
Stoke-on-Trent crown court heard that the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) sent the woman the tablets after she telephoned them during lockdown in 2020 and lied about how many weeks pregnant she was.
She was initially charged with child destruction and pleaded not guilty, before pleading guilty to an alternative charge of administering drugs or using instruments to procure abortion.
During the sentencing hearing, the court heard that the woman, who already had three sons and became pregnant for a fourth time in 2019, did not see a doctor about her pregnancy because she was “embarrassed” and did not know when she had become pregnant.
After the sentencing, Chiara Capraro, director of the women’s human rights programme at Amnesty International UK, said the decision to prosecute the woman because of a law from 1861 was “shocking and quite frankly terrifying”.
Clare Murphy, chief executive of BPAS, said: “No woman can ever go through this again”. She called for MPs to protect women in desperate circumstances so they were not threatened with prison.
AND QUITE RIGHT, TOO!!
"Chiara Capraro, director of the women’s human rights programme at Amnesty International UK, said the decision to prosecute the woman because of a law from 1861 was “shocking and quite frankly terrifying”."
DeleteIt is shocking and quite frankly terrifying to murder a child. you silly woman.
"Clare Murphy, chief executive of BPAS, said: “No woman can ever go through this again"
So stop promoting and assisting abortion you silly woman.
And so we have the disgusting Gene Vincent, the bigot who thinks he has the right to control women’s decisions about pregnancy in situations he knows fuck all about. The man who would rather see women resort to aborting themselves with coat hangers and knitting needles and dying of sepsis than to be able to use a service provided by qualified medical professionals and afforded professional aftercare. Thank God misogynists like him will never again get their hands on the levers of power
DeleteI am pleased that this unfortunate woman had had her sentence cut. But has justice been seen to have been done? There was a child killed here. In my opinion the real culprit is BPAS.
ReplyDeleteIn that case it is just as well that nobody cares about your pissy little opinions: thank God for small mercies.
DeleteOn 18th July 2023, the Court of Appeal reduced the sentence of Carla Foster to 14 months suspended, following her earlier imprisonment for illegally obtaining abortion tablets to end her pregnancy during lockdown. Commenting on the ruling, Bishop John Sherrington, Lead Bishop for Life Issues for the Bishops’ Conference, said:
ReplyDelete'I reiterate the consistent teaching of the Church that both the mother and the unborn child should be afforded the protection of the law and that abortion is always a tragedy for all concerned.
'It is important that the law which protects the life of the unborn child is upheld. In this case I welcome the court's decision to show mercy and compassion so that Carla Foster is reunited with her children and her family life can continue.
'I raise again the concern that telemedicine (pills by post), which allows the home termination of pregnancies of up to 10 weeks, is dangerous for the health of women.'
Bishop John Sherrington
Compare and contrast: a compassionate clergyman aware that life is a lot more complicated for others than it is for him, a celibate religious with no skin in the game.
ReplyDeleteAnd then we have Gene Vincent, misogynist, peeping Tom, serial groper, nasty minded bigot and - oh, yes, devout (sic) “Christian” who, like “Fathe” Calvin Robinson, thinks the homosexuals should be executed. A thoroughly disgusting human being.
" who like “Father” Calvin Robinson, thinks the homosexuals should be executed."
DeleteThis is downright evil. I do hope that Father Calvin Robinson never sees what an evil and false accusation you have made against him.
You falsehoods and malicious lies put you outside of all decent society Detterling.
Ah stop vapouring you silly did.
Delete“Father” Calvin Robinson is a “priest” in the “Free Church of England” which is a member of GAFCON and the Global South Fellowship of Anglican Churches. In both of those organisations are African churches who treat homosexuality as evidence of demonic possession and try to exorcise them. And prominent among them is also the Anglican Church of Uganda which supports the laws of that country which condemn homosexuals to death. If “Father” Robinson belongs to GAFCON and the Global South Fellowship and doesn’t know what inhumane policies it operates then he is a fool or a charlatan or, possibly both. So stop striking attitudes, you lazy, ignorant ponce.
DeleteBut never mind all this bogus hagiology - let us savour more of the literary wankfest that is "Gene Vincent - close up on a phenomenon" - a feast for the conoisseurs of terrible writing, prose that is the equivalent in writing of two fingers down the throat...Gene is reminiscing about his childhood:
ReplyDeleteI remember the first song I ever heard. It was 'Dreamin' by Johhny Burnette. Have always liked that record.... I grew up on Elvis, Johnny Burnette, the Everley Brothers, Buddy Holly, the Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, Del Shannon, and of course the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. When I became a teenager what sort of music was around? Absolute crap such as Emmerson, Lake and Palmer and Barclay James Harvest. No wonder I kept with the sounds I grew up with. Roy Orbison. Wonderful. Those songs were mini operas. Del Shannon has become one of my heroes. What a talent! Del Shannon's haunting vignettes of heartbreak and restlessness contain something of a cosmic undercurrent which has the protagonist tragically doomed to a bleak, shadowy struggle...
Sadly in Del's case life imitated art in that he committed suicide in 1990. He was a long term sufferer of bi-polar condition. His widow sued the manufactorers of Prozac the drug he had been prescribed by a psychiatrist two weeks before his death. Her law suit was unsuccessful.
And a little aside here Libby. Some people think that I'm anti-gay. Well, I'm not...
LIBBY: Pardon me me Gene but you are certainly a great and very effective opponent of the gay lobby. I can't think of any public figure - other than perhaps Richard Ingrams - who has been more determined.
GENE: Ah! Libby but that's it. It's the gay lobby and their intolerance I attack. I have never been critical of homosexual orientation. And this is the little aside I mentioned... We had a great uncle on my mother's side who was that way inclined. He was in fashion retail for the John Lewis partnership and later for Selfridges. He had a penchant for pink cardigans and all things Ivor Novello. Myself and Paul used to visit him in his flat in Richmond. He lived in a road just off Richmond Hill and sitting out on the wrought iron balcony one could see right down to that famous view of the Thames painted by Turner and others.
My God! That flat would be worth a fortune these days. Anyhow, when Paul and I would set out to visit him my father would get this mischievous glint in his eyes and say, "Well boys. Off to visit Uncle Nancy?" I used to ask Paul why Dad insisted on calling Uncle Claude Uncle Nancy but Paul would always brush things aside saying, " Oh! let's leave it. It's Dad's sense of humour."
Looking back he was a total old queen, but Paul and I liked him enormously and he was always so generous with birthdays and at Christmas.
LIBBY: Paul and then yourself attended Cardinal Vaughan Memorial School in Kensington I understand.
GENE: That's right. And what a wise decision by my mother and father. It meant some extra travelling time per day but it was so worth it. An excellent school and I loved it. Recently is been sadly in the news for all the wrong reasons. The pinko liberals on the Archdiocese of Westminster Education Department have tried to water down the school's Catholic ethos (What an irony!) and they wished to interfere with the school's admission policy and discipline policy and to correct what they complained of as the school's 'elitism'. Thankfully the school's parent/teacher governors have stood up to them and the pinko liberals are getting nowhere. I like Archbishop Vincent Nichols but he was wrongly advised by the left wing clique here.
Cardinal Vaughan is a wonderful school and I was so proud to send my own son Paul there."
A couple of footnotes to the above vomit inducing extract from "Gene Vincent - close up on a pretentious arsehole."
ReplyDeleteThis phrase about Del Shannon's music stands out for its precision, layered meaning and lucidity - and whenever you come across writing of this quality in something Gene has written, you cn be sure that he has stolen it from someone else. In this case it was from an article byt the music critic of the Chicago Times published in 2003.
And the fable about "Uncle Nancy" is, of course, just that - a fable. "Claude" [1917 - 1983] was a flamboyant homosexual in the Quentin Crisp mould with more than a touch of the Larry Grayson/Kenneth Williams manner, and, in his day, one of the most notorious buggers in London. Woe betide anyone in the London blackout who thoughtlessly bent down to tie his shoelaces....
Apologise for this or else! Great-uncle Claude was not flamboyant and the was nothing of the Larry Grayson/Kenneth Williams about him.
DeleteHe was a thoroughly decent soul - not that you, a lying, calumniating sewer rat, would know anything about decency.
BALLS.
DeleteSorry - that last post was a mistake. I should have said
Delete(1) BALLS and
(2) FUCK OFF.
Nota Bene:
ReplyDeleteNot a single word of regret about the child killed from the BPAS.
Not a single word of regret about the child killed from Detterling.
That is because I don’t feel that my feelings are relevant to this poor woman’s dreadful situation. I don’t need to strike attitudes that make me feel better about myself unlike you. Mind your own fucking business.
ReplyDelete"Apologise for this or else! Great-uncle Claude was not flamboyant and the was nothing of the Larry Grayson/Kenneth Williams about him."
ReplyDeleteOh, come off it, you pompous, bombastic prick. Who DO you think you are to order me about? Sod off.
"He was a thoroughly decent soul - not that you, a lying, calumniating sewer rat, would know anything about decency."
I didn't say he wasn't a decent soul - there was no suggestion of his coercing people to have sex with him. And in any case, as you have often claimed to justify the appalling filth you have written about me and mine, it was only spirited badinage levelled in thoroughly good humour in the rip-roaring spirit of to and fro.
Typical Gene - he can dish it out but he can't take it. Prick.