SOME  COMMENTS 

ABOUT SAINT MARIA GORRETTI

INTRODUCTION

The title of my reflection is, “Some Comments About Saint Maria Goretti.”

14^TH MONDAY ORDINARY TIME

Today’s gospel- Matthew 9: 18-28 -  was not picked because this is the feast of Maria Goretti. It’s the continuation of Ordinary Time and it  just happens to tell a story about a young girl like Maria Goretti – but the gospel story is about a  girl who  is dying and Jesus calls her to healing and life.  Maria Goretti dies and this young girl lives – so the contrast is polar opposite.

And today’s first reading from Hosea 3: 16-22 - centers in on virtues other than those heard in the context of Maria Goretti.  We hear mention of right and justice, love and mercy – and fidelity. A preacher could make a case for forgiveness in that Maria Goretti forgives her killer before she dies and God wants Hosea to be the great forgiver of his wife as God is to Israel.

SAINT  MARIA  GORETTI

Saint Maria Goretti - an 11 year old girl -  was the victim  of murder – by a 20 year old guy. This a totally different story.

Maria Goretti  was presented to us when we were young as a model of chastity – death as a choice compared to giving in to lust.  I noticed in the literature that the message for today is different than what we heard in the early 1950’s.

In fact, the mind set – and the story of her killer – might be a good probe for a sermon.

Maria was a victim. But whatever words are used – her family was poor and they lost their dad in 1900 and they ended up moving in with another poor family – the Serenelli’s – who in the same situation. Maria saw the son Allesandro – as a brother not as a seducer – or abuser.

When he made his moves on Maria – we all know the story – she resisted and he went crazy with an awl – a knife like weapon – stabbing her 14 times – some wounds in her stomach.

It took them 5 hours to get Maria to the hospital which was close by and the operation took another 5 hours. No anasthesia and she dies of septic poisoning. This is 1902.

I spotted an Australian newspaper article that mentions the grounds for her canonization are not enough according to one writer. The article was entitled, “A Rush to Judgment”.  Yet she died in 1902 and wasn’t canonized till 1950. I thought her story should be part of the discussion on canonizations.

Her story has the great element of her forgiving Allesandro before he died. It took him 3 years to accept – and slowly change. He was given a 30 year prison sentence – was at Maria’s canonization – having become a Capucin brother.

Her canonization was one of the largest  - some 500,000 – in an outdoor ceremony in St. Peter’s Square, Vatican – with many young people as part of the crowd.

The Passionists run her shrine in Nettuno by water – about 45 miles south of Rome  - not too far from the beaches of Anzio of World War II fame – but I’m about to bring the Redemptorists into the scene.

CONCLUSION

In 1984  John Ruef took me to Maria Goretti’s shrine. It’s in the Province of Frosinone and we have a place in Frosinone where Clement studied and was ordained and sent from.  That was the main purpose of our trip.

For a comparison – the early Redemptorists had struggles with poverty and they also had to move a lot - like the Goretti family as well as the Serenelli families.  This was to be the lot of Clement and Thaddeus Hubl.