Catholic Health Care Advocates Papers

Blessed Dr. Gianna Beretta Molla's Vision
of The Role Of Catholic Physicians

Joseph W. Cunningham, Esq.

"...crowning an exemplary life as a student, a young woman engaged in the ecclesiastical community, a happy wife and mother. She offered up her life in sacrifice so that the child she bore in her womb might live; this child who's here with us today...

"As a physician and surgeon she knew very well what she was up against. But she did not turn back in the face of sacrifice, thus confirming the heroism of her virtues...."Thus, almost thirty-two years after the death of this 39-year old wife, mother, and physician, Pope John Paul II proclaimed Gianna Beretta Molla a "Blessed" of the Church and a model for all mothers.

Who was this lady whose fame is spreading across national and international boundaries? Gianna Beretta Molla was the tenth of thirteen children born to Alberto and Maria Beretta of Magenta, near Milan, in Italy. Five children died at birth or at an early age. The other eight were, in this order: Amalia (pianist), Francesco (engineer), Ferdinando (physician), Enrico (physician and Capuchin priest with the name of Father Alberto), Zita (pharmacist), Giuseppe (engineer and priest), Gianna (physician), and Virginia (physician and religious sister).

According to her husband Pietro Molla¹, Gianna chose medicine out of a conviction that, more than other professions, it would allow her to help many people heal their bodies as well as their souls. Furthermore, this profession is based on interpersonal relationships, at which Gianna excelled. In her writings she stated that a physician has opportunities that are not even afforded to a priest. In her view, the physician's duty is to care not only for a person's body, but also for the soul. In a word, she viewed her profession as a mission.

Blessed Gianna had a sacred respect for patients' bodies and for them as persons, which was almost a veneration. She often repeated: "When we touch a patient's body, we touch the body of Jesus." It was an almost sacramental concept, so Gianna tried to heal patients from their diseases but at the same time she comforted their souls. Her patients felt they were treated with dignity and they were grateful.

Every one of us in this world works in some way to serve mankind. We work on man directly. The subject of our science and work is man who tells us of himself and says: "Help me" and expects us to restore him to the fullness of being. Jesus would tell us: who is man. He is not body alone. In that body there is thought, there is a will, which is capable of facing pain and suffering, while others are not. The body harbors within it an immortal spirit. There is a chasm between body and soul, for they are so different, yet they are joined. What would Jesus say? You must give this body all your care. God has so intertwined the godly with the human that everything we do takes on a much greater value. Unfortunately, today there is a superficiality even in our work. We cure bodies, but often incompetently.

1. Let us do our part well. Study your science thoroughly. Today there is a race after money.
2. Let us be honest. Let us be faithful physicians.
3. Care for your patients affectionately, thinking that they are our brothers. Be considerate.
4. Do not forget the patient's soul.

So we who are privy to certain intimate secrets should be careful not to desecrate their souls. It would be a betrayal of their trust. Watch the words we sometimes let out thoughtlessly, the way we instinctively abuse their reserve, when charity is strength and firmness. Rather, let us do some good: we have opportunities the priest does not have. Our mission is not over when medicines are no longer useful; there is a soul to lead to God and your word would be authoritative. Each physician has to entrust the patient to the priest. How necessary are these Catholic physicians! The great mystery of man - he is a body but also a supernatural soul - there is Jesus - those who visit the sick help "me" - priestly mission - as the priest can touch Jesus - so we touch Jesus in the body of our patients - poor, young, old, children. Let Jesus show himself in our midst, let Him find many physicians who give of themselves for Him. "When you are finished with your profession - if you have served it - come and enjoy the love of God for I was sick and you healed me."

The writings of Gianna Beretta Molla. Transcription of page 27 of her handwritten notebook.

Luigia Galli Garavaglia, Dr. Gianna's nurse from 1950-1962, described her service: "Gianna visited the sick and taught them. Even during the last month of pregnancy, when called at night, she always attended promptly. I remember that once she was called three times during the same night. She continued treating the sick till the last day before entering the clinic for the birth of her last child. If the patient was poor, besides a free examination, Gianna gave him medicine and money."²

Maria Barni from Mesero remembered Dr. Beretta who sought work for sick workers: "When Gianna saw that her patients could not continue doing the same kind of work for reasons of health, she sought a different type of work more suited to them and very often she succeeded in getting it; she found jobs for many."³

As a Christian and as a doctor she stood for life. "The doctor should not meddle. The right of the child to live is equal to the right of the mother's life. The doctor cannot decide; it is a sin to kill in the womb." Her parish priest reported a meeting he had with Gianna: "She came to report to me with great sorrow, the case of a very young lady who wanted to abort. The tone of her voice, more than her words, expressed suffering and horror; she begged me to intervene, admonishing and exhorting the young woman to dread such a crime."Once, after Gianna visited a seventeen-year-old girl complaining of strong abdominal pains she realized the girl was undergoing an abortion. According to her brother, Dr. Ferdinando Beretta, Gianna exclaimed: "Are you not sorry to have offended God thus? Are you not afraid to have offended him so many times? Are you really sorry for what you have done? Did you go to confession?" "She continued in this way with indescribable sadness and sweetness. I could see in her eyes all the sorrow for the offense done to God by the girl who could not understand why Gianna suffered so much on account of her spiritual situation, while she expected from her only a prescription for medicine."⁴

Blessed Gianna "lived" her beliefs. In the summer of 1961 she became pregnant with her fourth child. After two months she developed a painful uterine tumor or fibroma which threatened both her life and that of her developing child.

The couple was faced with three choices. One was to remove the fibroma and, as a consequence, terminate the pregnancy and end all hope of future pregnancies. A second would remove the fibroma, terminating the pregnancy but leaving open the possibility of future pregnancies. The third would be the removal of the fibroma in such a way that would not interrupt the pregnancy, but would put the mother's life in grave danger.

Her husband Pietro recalls: "You chose, you decided and asked the surgeon for the third solution. You did it through charity, maternal responsibility, the greatest respect you had for that pregnancy, for that child you had in your womb, and who, to you, had the same untouchable rights as...the other children you had given birth to... all gifts of God. "Gianna went full term in this, her last pregnancy. She entered the Monza Maternity Hospital on Good Friday, April 20, 1962. In mid-April she related to a friend: "I am going into the hospital but I am not sure that I'll return home. My pregnancy is difficult: They will have to save one or the other; I want my baby to live."Pietro wrote: "Only a few days prior to the delivery, with a firm tone and, at the same time, calm, with a profound look that I have never forgotten, you said to me: 'If you must choose between me and the baby, [let there be] no hesitation: choose-I demand it-the baby, save him. "On Holy Saturday, April 21, 1962 their daughter Gianna Emanuella was born. Gianna underwent excruciating pain over the next six days, refusing all pain medications so as to suffer like Jesus. In the early morning hours of Saturday, April 28, 1962, Gianna was brought home where she heard her children in the next room. Gianna died of septic peritonitis at 8am on that day.

In October 1997 at Maracana Stadium in Brazil, His Holiness Pope John Paul II attended the Second International Celebration of the Family. Various testimonies were given on the inestimable value of life. The Pope began to cry as he listened to the daughters of Blessed Gianna. Gianna Emanuella, herself a medical doctor, gave the following testimony: "Dear mom, thank you for having given me life two times; when you conceived me and when you permitted me to be born, protecting my life... And so my life seeks to be the natural continuation of your life, of your joy of living, of your enthusiasm, and it finds its full meaning in the engagement and in the dedication to whoever lives in suffering. Dear mom, intercede always for all mothers and all families who turn to you and entrust themselves to you."

If you desire further information or a free holy card, please write or call the following: Blessed Gianna, P.O. Box 59557, Philadelphia, PA 19102-9557; phone 215-297-5940; website: www.gianna.org; E-mail: info@gianna.org.

1. Gianna: Up Close by Elio Guerriero and Pietro Molla (Saint Paul Publishers, 1998), soon to be published in English. Contact The Society of Blessed Gianna Beretta Molla, P.O. Box 59557, Philadelphia, PA 19102-9557 or check out our website: www.gianna.org; E-mail: info@gianna.org. Telephone: 215-297-5940
2. For the Love of Life: Gianna Beretta Molla, doctor and mother by Fernando da Riese Pio X, (Nuova Citta, 1981), p. 97.
3. Id.

4. Id. p. 101-102.