Pope Francis prays in front of a crucifix during his general audience on Oct. 26, 2022. / Vatican Media
Denver, Colo., Jun 23, 2023 / 09:15 am (CNA).
Pope Francis on June 23 sent a heartfelt video message to a 17-year-old Portuguese girl suffering from a serious illness.
Edna sent the Holy Father a letter expressing her sadness for not being able to attend World Youth Day this year in Lisbon. Although she registered for the event, she told the pope that she will not be able to attend physically. The young girl deeply desired to meet Pope Francis.
She wrote in her letter: “When I heard that the [World Youth] Day would be held in Portugal, I was very happy, because every time I see the pope speak on television, I feel well, as if I had no illness that would prevent me from participating in the WYD.”
Edna added that she wanted to meet the pope so that she could tell him “how important he is for her and her family.”
#PapaFrancesco: “Edna, ho ricevuto la tua lettera, grazie! Grazie per la tua tenerezza e grazie per la pace che hai nel cuore. Questa pace è come un seme piantato nel cuore di tutti noi che ti vediamo e di tutti quelli che parlano con te… 🧵 pic.twitter.com/YSSEaa1G4n
However, the teenager doesn’t know how much longer she has to live. She has been suffering from a serious illness for the past eight years.
“The doctor said that he does not know when I will meet Jesus, but that it will happen soon,” she wrote.
Moved by her words, Pope Francis sent Edna a personal message to thank her.
“Edna, I received your letter; thank you! Thank you for your tenderness and thank you for the peace in your heart,” the Holy Father said.
He added: “This peace is like a seed planted in the hearts of all of us who see you and all those who talk to you. Thank you! I accompany you on this journey that you are making. I accompany you and I know that you will be well received. I accompany you by praying for you, praying with you, and looking at Jesus, who is always waiting for us. Thank you!”
In her letter, Edna asked for the pope’s prayers. In his video message, he asks her to keep him in her prayers.
“And now I give you my blessing so that it may also give you strength on this journey,” he concluded.
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A person attempts to clear away debris from a mudslide as a powerful long-duration atmospheric river storm, the second in less than a week, continues to impact Southern California on Feb. 5, 2024, in Beverly Hills, California. / Credit: Mario Ta… […]
Pope Francis meets with participants of the plenary assembly of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life on April 22, 2023, at the Vatican. / Credit: Vatican Media
St. Louis, Mo., Apr 25, 2023 / 14:50 pm (CNA).
Pope Francis discussed his … […]
Sister Mary Casey O’Connor, a Sister of Life, and her twin sister, Casey Gunning, teacher’s assistant and lifelong athlete in the Special Olympics / Courtesy of Sister Mary Casey O’Connor
Washington D.C., Jan 20, 2023 / 08:40 am (CNA).
Sister Mary Casey O’Connor has more than 100 sisters. But only one of them is her twin sister: Casey Gunning, who has Down syndrome.
“I wish everyone had someone like her because she just taught me what it means to love and to not expect anything back,” O’Connor told CNA. “And I mean, that’s ultimately our experience of God … Casey, for me, is an expression of God’s love.”
Each of them advocate for life, even if in different ways: O’Connor is a member of the religious community Sisters of Life, while Gunning serves as a teacher’s assistant and an athlete in the Special Olympics.
Describing her sister’s pro-life witness, O’Connor explained that “it’s not even like a conscious thing, she is constantly choosing just to live life to the full — and she receives the gift of her own life, and that, I think, is the most powerful kind of witness that she gives off.”
For her part, O’Connor joined the Sisters of Life, an order dedicated to promoting the inherent dignity and worth of every human person, in 2015.
The late Cardinal John O’Connor founded the Sisters of Life in New York in 1991. Based in the New York area, the order has sisters in Denver; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Washington, D.C.; and Ontario, Canada. The community of more than 100 Catholic religious women profess four vows: poverty, chastity, and obedience, and “to protect and enhance the sacredness of human life.”
Among other things, the sisters dedicate their lives to serving women vulnerable to abortion, offering life-affirming support to pregnant women in need, hosting retreats, evangelizing, practicing outreach to college students, and helping women who suffer after abortion.
O’Connor took her last name from the founder of the Sisters of Life. But her middle name, she said, comes from her sister.
“She was so honored that I took her name that she started going by Casey Mary,” she said, adding that “Mary” is Gunning’s confirmation name.
Even their shared age is a celebration, O’Connor revealed. While she clarified that they are 39 years old, Casey, she said, is “so happy to be [turning] 40.”
“She loves getting older because she really loves life,” O’Connor explained, saying that every year they spend six months preparing for their birthday, and, every year, they spend another six months winding down from their previous birthday.
In other words, she said, Casey “loves life.”
The youngest siblings in a family of four children grew up in Littleton, Colorado. The two older siblings were adopted, and the twins came as somewhat of a surprise — they were born after their mother was told that she could not have children.
They have been inseparable ever since.
“Just her presence in my life has had one of the biggest effects on just shaping my worldview and my view of life, my view of the faith, my view of the human person,” O’Connor said.
Casey, she said, helped her gain perspective on life.
“She’s kind of helped ground me in things that are important, and, kind of unintentionally, invited me to let go of things that are not as important, especially eternally,” she said. “And I mean, love literally is oozing out of her.”
Sister Mary Casey O’Connor and Casey Gunning, teacher’s assistant and lifelong athlete in the Special Olympics as babies. Courtesy of Sister Mary Casey O’Connor
“She places no judgment, she always forgives, she always gives the benefit of the doubt,” O’Connor continued. “She always sees the good in the other. And I desperately want that for myself and realize how far I am from that.
“But being in her presence invites me to do it, because she just does it naturally.”
Her sister’s presence also had an impact on her vocation.
“Once I met the Sisters of Life, it kind of all made sense that God had been preparing my heart for so many years, learning how to kind of look at each person for who they were, to see the good in them, to see past what, oftentimes, the world fails to see past,” she said.
O’Connor shared her approach for instances where she might encounter a pregnant woman expecting a baby prenatally diagnosed with Down syndrome — a woman who might feel scared or tempted to choose abortion. She said she would, first of all, listen.
“Because I think it’s so important just to be a space where someone can express the fears, and the sadness, and the sorrow and the kind of maybe a letdown of expectation — and just receive it and validate it,” she said.
“And then, I couldn’t help but share my own experience of Casey and invite a woman to … trust that God gives us gifts in ways that we don’t always expect or want or would choose for ourselves.”
“On a tangible, concrete, human level, Casey has been the tremendous — the tremendous — blessing of my life, and I just want to invite someone else to step out in faith and trust that God desires to be generous in the unknown,” she said.
If people remember one thing from their speeches on Friday, O’Connor said, she wants it to be that “God doesn’t make mistakes, that he knows what he’s doing.”
“And he has a great desire for us to need him, and he actually wants us to need each other,” she added. “That is what Casey and I — the gift that we have in each other — is that he kind of wrote that into the fabric of our relationship from the very beginning.”
Prayer is a powerful tonic in the armory of the sick, the weak and the ailing. Wishing Edna strength and courage. God bless.