Heroic Mothers
A pregnant mother in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was diagnosed with cancer and refused an abortion. Laura Alejandra Figueroa gave birth to her ninth child, at age 39. She died as a result (New Oxford Notes, Nov. 2006).
Another pregnant mother in Nashville, Tenn., was diagnosed with cancer and refused an abortion that doctors said would save her life (www.LifeSiteNews.com, March 2). Jennifer Ann Carlisle, at age 31 and married for 10 years, gave birth to her fourth child. And then her cancer worsened and eventually took her life.
Her husband, Joshua, said that when she was dying, “I told her that she needed to go on, that God was calling her home. I held her and she took her last breath. There was a peace at that last minute that’s just indescribable…. I guess she knew the secret of life and it is not in receiving but giving.”
You May Also Enjoy
Pope Francis isn't satisfied with the reductionism that narrows the Catholic ethic of life to "no abortion," or the Catholic teaching on the family to "no same-sex marriage."
Aside from somber, beautiful, or inspiring, a funeral I attended recently could be described as educational.
"I guess she knew the secret of life, and it is not in receiving but giving."