Photo by Alan M. Dumoff
Gianna Emanuela Molla prays with local members of the St. Gianna Physician’s Guild at a reception in her honor July 13 in Egg Harbor Township. She is the daughter of the guild’s patron, St. Gianna Beretta Molla, an Italian laywoman who was canonized in 2004. When she was two months pregnant and a tumor was discovered in her uterus, St. Gianna Molla opted for a risky operation to remove the tumor that preserved the life of her child rather than undergo a hysterectomy. Six days after giving birth to Gianna she died from complications. The mission of the St. Gianna Physician’s Guild is to “unite and encourage Catholic physicians and those in the health care profession to promote and defend Catholic principles in a public way by word and example, and to inspire sanctification in their lives.” The organization offers framed pictures of St. Gianna with a relic to churches, hospitals, physician’s offices and clinics. Gianna Emanuela Molla, who is herself a physician, lives in Italy where she directs the St. Gianna Beretta Molla Foundation in Mesero. For information about the Physician’s Guild, go to www.stgiannaphysicians.org.
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