Daughter of modern saint to speak at NZ conference

3 St Gianna Molla

The daughter of a saint is coming to New Zealand later this year.

Dr Gianna Emanuela Molla, the daughter of St Gianna Beretta Molla, will feature at a conference in Auckland from October 5-7 titled “Living the Splendour of Truth — International Pro-life, Pro-Family Conference”.

According to Family Life International’s website, the conference is scheduled to take place at Epsom Girls Grammar School.

A LifeFest youth conference will also be held on October 4, the birthday of St Gianna Beretta Molla (in 1922).

Dr Molla is scheduled to give keynote addresses at the conference, conference dinner and at the youth conference, as well as being at a young adults luncheon.

St Gianna Molla gave her life so that her daughter, the Dr Molla who is coming to New Zealand, might live.

According to a CNS report, St Gianna Molla and her husband Pietro had three children in the 1950s.

“But in late 1961, pregnant with the couple’s fourth child, St Gianna, a paediatrician, was diagnosed with a uterine tumour. The couple refused treatment that could have harmed the unborn child. Gianna Emanuela was born in April, 1962 and her mother died one week later of an infection.”

St John Paul II beatified Gianna in 1994 and proclaimed her a saint in 2004. She is the patron saint of mothers, physicians and the unborn.

The FLI website stated that Dr Gianna Emanuela Molla formerly worked as a geriatrician and now “works full time serving the Saint Gianna Foundation as general secretary and is devoted to sharing the example, testimony and spirituality of her Saint-Mum”.

Cardinal Burke

Also scheduled to speak at the October conference is US Cardinal Raymond Burke, one of the world’s leading canonists.

Cardinal Burke was one of four cardinals who in 2016 released a set of five “dubia” or questions in which they asked Pope Francis for clarifications, in the wake of the latter’s post-synodal apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia and different interpretations of some sections of the document by bishops’ conferences.

Two of the cardinals have since died. Thus far, there has reportedly been no response from Pope Francis.

Cardinal Burke will give a keynote speech at the conference and will preach homilies at opening and closing conference Masses. He will also preach during Adoration at the Lifefest youth conference and will be at the young adults luncheon. According to the FLI publicity material, the conference is inspired by two documents which “address the moral issues surrounding life and family” — Humanae Vitae and Veritatis Splendour.

Participants at the conference will “gain an understanding of current issues affecting life, faith and family, and how, with genuine compassion and accompaniment, the moral sense of our communities can be reawakened”.

The conference is also designed, according to FLI, “to equip, educate, encourage and provide opportunities for fellowship and spiritual renewal”.  It is aimed at “all those who wish to build a culture of life in their local, national and international communities”.

There will be at least 12 other speakers at the conference.

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Michael Otto

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