Here's a story which is true.
On July 5, 1902, finding Maria alone sewing, with her toddler sister, Teresa, sleeping nearby, Alessandro Serenelli attempted to force himself on the girl. She would not submit, protesting that what he wanted to do was a sin and warning that he'd go to Hell if he raped her. Serenelli at first choked Maria, but when she said she would rather die than submit to him, he stabbed her 11 times. The injured but still-living Maria tried to reach the door, so Serenelli stabbed her 3 more times before running away.
...The following day, twenty hours after the attack, having expressed forgiveness for her murderer and stating that she wanted to have him in heaven with her, Maria died of her injuries
...Serenelli was sentenced to prison for his crime and remained unrepentant and uncommunicative from the world, for three years. One night, he had a dream of Maria offering him 14 lilies for the 14 times she was stabbed. Following this dream, he became deeply repentant. After his release from prison, Serenelli went to Maria's still-living mother, Assunta, and begged her forgiveness. She forgave him, and they attended Mass together the next day, receiving Holy Communion side by side.
Maria Goretti was made a Saint (canonized) by the Church. Both the perp and Maria's mother attended the ceremony in Rome. The perp became a lay Franciscan.
Here's another true story:
Rahjeen Mitchell woke up last week in a hospital
...She had been hit in the forehead by an errant bullet outside her home
...Rahjeen came home from the hospital Tuesday, continuing a remarkable recovery. That same night she first spoke to the man who shot her.
Calling from the Milwaukee County Jail, Terry told her he loved her.
"I told him I love him, too," Rahjeen said
...Raney Mitchell remembers Terry as a polite boy who always had a hug for her.
"I hate the act, but I forgive him," she said.
A certain local Radio Mouth views the comments of Rahjeen and Raney (her mom) as 'symptomatic of the degeneracy in Milwaukee.'
The Roman Catholic church, (of which the commentator claims to be a member) politely disagrees with that assessment.
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6 comments:
Just to clarify, the Church disagrees with the statement of the "Radio Mouth"?
Are you able to say who it was that said it?
Which talk radio personality is Catholic, other than Jay Weber?
That would be Belling.
By the way, James--when did Sykes become a Roman Catholic?
Are you sure that Belling was talking about the forgiveness, and not the action of the person who shot the girl?
He reiterated his thought a couple of times. He didn't like the 'forgiveness.'
It was very clear. He yells a lot.
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