Self-Sacrificing Love

I had the opportunity to review Love is a Choice: The Life of St. Gianna Molla as part of the Catholic Company’s reviewer program. (Apparently some bloggers are getting huge rewards for reviewing products, and government authorities are clamping down on those who do not clearly state any compensation they receive for their endorsements. So I’ll tell y’all up front that I was given the DVD for free in exchange for an honest review.)

This film is a moving documentary about a modern-day Catholic saint, which in the course of telling her life story teaches us what true love really is. Gianna Beretta Molla was an Italian wife, mother, and doctor who lived in the mid-20^th Century. While she was pregnant with her fourth child, doctors discovered a fibroma in her uterus. Fully aware of the consequences of not fully treating the fibroma, Gianna refused to have either an abortion or hysterectomy. Her baby girl Gianna Emanuela was born healthy, and a week later Gianna died of septic peritonitis. Pope John Paul II beatified her in 1994 during the international year of the family and canonized her in 2004. The story is shared through her love letters to her husband, family pictures and videos, and interviews with friends and family. Footage of St. Gianna’s canonization ceremony, with her husband and children present, is included at the end.

Ask a room full of children who wants to be a saint. Few, if any hands, will be raised. But all hands shoot up when you ask who want to go to heaven. So many people think of saints as people who lived austere lives as priests and nuns in bygone eras. This depiction of the life of St. Gianna Molla shows otherwise. Her heroic self-sacrifice is an inspiration, and she would be a wonderful role model for people in many different states of life. While she can inspire all, I would suggest that the movie be reserved for middle-school aged children and up due to the sensitive topics. I will be recommending this movie for the monthly young adult gatherings. I think you’d enjoy it too.

"The Church celebrates her new saint at a cultural moment when "choice" rarely means self-gift—making our lives the gift to others that our own lives are to us. Saint Gianna Beretta Molla made a choice: a choice for love, even unto death, because she knew that "choice" in the truly human sense means freely choosing the good. May her prayers at the Throne of Grace strengthen us in living and defending the gospel of life." -- George Weigel

St. Gianna Molla pray for us.