Walmart "Mom of the Year" nominee refused abortion during cancer treatment

From Catholic News Agency

Yarmouth, Canada, Jul 13, 2012 / 04:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The women who were nominated for Walmart’s Canadian “Mom of the Year” contest have many outstanding qualities, but few can claim they fought off breast cancer and gave birth to their seventh child at the same time.

“We knew right from the beginning that God wouldn't give us this life and then ask us to take it,” Maria Pitman told CNA July 10, explaining that the doctor wanted her to abort her child.

Pitman, a Canadian homeschooling mother of seven, was diagnosed with breast cancer early on in her most recent pregnancy.

Medically, the doctor said it “made sense” because it would make testing and treatment easier than if she were carrying a child. “We came home that day knowing we couldn't make that decision, and that God wouldn't be asking us to do that,” Pitman said.

Doctors continued to encourage Pitman to have an abortion, even up until the day before she underwent a full mastectomy 20 weeks into her pregnancy.

The day of surgery, however, the doctors stopped asking Pitman if she wanted to abort, because “they realized we were not about to change our minds.”

During that time, Pitman and her husband Jeff learned that, after one daughter and five boys in a row, they were having another girl.

“Those were the only tears I cried that day; in joy that it was a girl,” she said. After the mastectomy, Pitman endured three rounds of chemotherapy, in between which she delivered her daughter Johannah at 36 weeks.

Weighing in at seven pounds and four ounces, “she came out perfectly healthy.”

Pitman faced one of her hardest trials when, after Johannah's birth, she and her family had to travel three hours from their home in Yarmouth to Halifax for six weeks of radiation therapy while still homeschooling four of her children.

“I kind of figured things would be easier (since) I wasn't pregnant anymore,” Pitman explained, “but things got so much worse.”

Pitman said she would ask God just “for strength to get out of bed and spend some time with the kids.”

And God did support Pitman and her family, even during the toughest trial. “The Lord provided and orchestrated everything for us for the entire year,” especially by bringing “all the right people into our lives at the right time,” she said.

Pitman found particular strength in the scripture passage Matthew 21:21-22, which says in part, “ ... but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ it will happen. And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.

“God was able to move the 'cancer mountain' for our family,” she said.

After her battle with breast cancer, Pitman's 17 year-old daughter, Jocelyn, nominated her for Walmart's “Mom of the Year” award, which is a “celebration of the 9.2 million Canadian Moms who work tirelessly every day to provide for their family.”

The winner will receive $10,000 in cash and a $100,000 donation will be made to the charity of her choice. The top mom will also be honored with a “day of pampering,” a photo shoot and a “special red carpet gala” in Toronto.

Should she win, Pitman will give her donation to Camp Peniel, a nearby Christian camp where her daughter Jocelyn works.

“This camp is amazing and is doing a fabulous job of sharing Jesus Christ to so many each year,” Pitman said.

Nominations closed July 8, but the judges will deliberate the 16,909 entries and announce a winner “around August 15.”

Do you think she'll get it?

American Woman "Deacon" renounces her "ordination" and professes the teachings of Popes John Paul II and Benedict XVI

From Rorate Coeli and Fr Z, Norma Jean Coon is now a penitent and faithful Catholic.

She writes:

I had made a mistake in studying for the priesthood. I confess to the truth of Pope John Paul II’s Apostolic Letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis . I confess the authority of the Holy Father on these issues of ordination and recognize that Christ founded the ordination only for men.

Formally, I relinquish all connection to the program of Roman Catholic Women Priests and I disclaim the alleged ordination publicly with apologies to those whose lives I have offended or scandalized by my actions. I ask God’s blessings upon each of these folks and their families.

Norma Jean Coon, RN, MFCC, PhD
San Diego, California
Tuesday, February 8, 2011

And, further:

Holy God, I ask your blessings on my Bishop and my pastor and priests in Rome who have assisted me in the process of being re-instated into the Roman Catholic Church and I forsake all connection with the Roman Catholic Women Priests program via Internet or otherwise.

I thank you for the efforts of my family in my behalf and ask for Jesus’ Light and Love to pour over my husband of 47 years and my five children.

Forgive me my Beloved Jesus and Mother Mary for pursuing my own will in this matter of ordination and as I consecrate myself to your Divine Will through the Sacred Heart and the Immaculate Heart of Mary, I ask you to pour out Light and Love upon any who have placed themselves outside of your Love and Light Bless us, O Lord, for these thy gifts and place us in the Heart of the Father, as we pray for more priests to serve in our church and for vocations to enrich our Church in the United States.

Forgive us for failing in obedience and enrich us in your Holy Love, I pray through Jesus and Mary. Fiat+

Good for her and thanks be to God.

Convent experiencing "vocations crisis"!!!

I received this mailing from the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. The crisis this community is experiencing is not one of a lack of vocations but managing to attend to the "miraculous draught" of vocations. In the enclosed letter from Mother Assumpta Long, Prioress General, she describes how in the thirteen years since their foundation their numbers have increased more than 2,500 percent, from four sisters to over one hundred. At a time when the average religious sister is in her sixties, most of these Dominican sisters are in their twenties.

What are the secrets of this phenomenal growth? Mother Assumpta points to:

1. The Providence of God
2. Unwavering orthodoxy. Throught the eight years of formation, from postulancy to final vows, the sisters study the fundamentals of the Faith as presented in Scripture, the Summa Theologiea of St Thomas Aquinas, the Catechism of the Catholic Church, papal writings and other source documents. They also study Mariology, Church history, spiritual classics, liturgy and more. Then they take these treasures into the world through their teaching and evangelising.
3. Constant prayer. "Prayer is as necessary to the religious life as water is to a plant. Without it, we die." So prayer comes first so their apostolate overflows from contemplation nourished before the Eucharist. The sisters join in daily community prayer as follows:
   
   • Mass
   • Divine Office
   • Eucharistic Holy Hour
   • Rosary
   • Renewal of Consecration to Mary
   • Prayer for Vocations
   • Meditation.
   In addition, every Friday they have Eucharistic Adoration with confessions and, on First Fridays, all night Eucharistic Adoration.
4. The Traditional Habit. The habit is a sign of consecration and a witness to poverty. "It speaks instantly and eloquently, yet wordlessly, of who we are and what we believe. As a symbol of one 'given to Christ,' the habit 'claims' us to be His spouses in much the same way that a wedding ring announces to the world - and reminds oneself - that one is 'taken'. It is a sign of hope in a world that needs to be reminded of the possibility of living joyfully in the freely chosen consecration of chastity, poverty and obedience."
5. Joy! These sisters love being sisters. To them a life of service is not a burden but a high privilege and a thrilling adventure.

The Sisters are dedicated to reviving the tradition of teaching Sisters that, in the past, made Catholic schools educationally superior, genuinely Catholic and widely affordable. In the last four years, the Sisters have accepted invitations of local bishops to expand their teaching apostolate to five new dioceses: Pheonix, Arizona; Charleston, South Carolina; Sacramento, California; Venice, Florida; and Austin, Texas.

All this expansion and the miraculous draught of vocations means that they are short of space and short of funds. How can they handle this crisis?

"We could, of course, refuse to accept new vocations. But that, to us, would be like a married couple refusing to accept the gift of new life: it betrays a lack of trust in God's promise to provide for our every need if we seek only to do His will."

Rather than simply expand their Motherhouse again, which would make it difficult to maintain the close-knit community spirit that a convent needs, they want to build at least one additional Priory in another part of the USA which will allow them to accommodate up to one hundred new vocations and, at the same time, begin the long prayed-for nationwide expansion of their apostolate in a permanent way.

So they are looking for money! You can find out more about them at their website.

When I visited Detroit a month or two ago, I took the opportunity of visiting their Motherhouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Sister Mary David, pictured above with Father Larry Van Damme, Pastor of St Michael's Church in Marquette, and me kindly gave us a guided tour of the Convent.

Although Sister Mary David said I could take more photos, I didn't feel comfortable taking photos in the interior, the chapel etc. It is, after all, their home. But you can see more at their website.

I have previously blogged on this community at
Dominican Sisters of Mary Mother of the Eucharist on Oprah Winfrey tonight
Oprah promotes Dominican Sisters of Mary Ann Arbor Michigan - must watch
A thriving Dominican Order of Sisters in Michigan

Share |

Oprah promotes Dominican Sisters of Mary Ann Arbor Michigan - must watch

Oprah thought a cell was a phone! You really must watch these videos - a report for the Oprah Winfrey show on this dynamic community of Dominican Sisters of Mary whose average age is 26! H/t Fr Finigan.

Part 1:


Part 2:


Part 3:


Part 4:

Poor Clares of Ty Mam Duw

I've been sent link to this video of the Poor Clare Colletines of Ty Mam Duw and am happy to put it up here. It's good to pray for vocations to contemplative orders such as these. Sometimes it's difficult to get to know about these communities in the British Isles.

St Therese and the Priesthood

Photo: catholicrelics.co.uk

It is so highly appropriate for us in the UK that the relics of St Therese should be visiting here during the year dedicated to prayer for priests. St Therese had a great veneration for priests and she prayed for them.

We read in her autobiography (all quotations from Story of a Soul 3rd edition translated by John Clarke OCD, ICS Publications, Washington DC, 1996)that in the examination preceding her Profession, she declared at the feet of Jesus-Victim what she had come to Carmel for:

I came to save souls and especially to pray for priests.

In her Story of a Soul we read about her experience of priests when she visited Rome. It was not altogether edifying but it moved her to prayer.

Having never lived close to them (priests), I was not able to understand the principal aim of the Reform of Carmel. To pray for sinners attracted me, but to pray for the souls of priests whom I believed to be as pure as crystal seemed puzzling to me.

I understood my vocation in Italy... I lived in the company of many saintly priests for a month and I learned that, though their dignity raises them above the angels, they are nevertheless weak and fragile men. If holy priests, whom Jesus in His Gospel calls the "salt of the earth", show in their conduct their extreme need for prayers, what is to be said of those who are tepid? Didn't Jesus say too: "If the salt loses its savour, wherewith will it be salted?"

How beautiful is the vocation ... which has as its aim the preservation of the salt destined for souls! This is Carmel's vocation since the sole purpose of our prayers and sacrifices is to be the apostle of the apostles. We are to pray for them while they are preaching to souls through their words and especially their example.

St Therese also speaks of a desire

which appeared totally unrealisable to me, that of having a brother as a priest. I often thought that had my little brothers [who had died in early childhood] not flown away to heaven, I would have had the happiness of seeing them mount the altar.

On the feast of St Teresa of Avila in 1895, Mother Agnes of Jesus read to Therese a letter from a young seminarian.

He was asking for a Sister who would devote herself especially to the salvation of his soul and aid him through her prayers and sacrifies when he was a missionary so that he could save many souls. He promised to remember the one who would become his sister at the Holy Sacrifice each day after he was ordained. Mother Agnes of Jesus told me she wanted me to become the sister of this future missionary.

St Therese says she found it impossible to describe her joy at acquiring this new little brother.

In May 1896, she was called again and asked to "take charge of the spiritual interests of a missionary who is to be ordained and leave very soon." Afraid that she could not pray as well for two priests as for one, she recalled that "the zeal of a Carmelite embraces the whole world" and accepted the honour of having two brothers.

I hope with the grace of God to be useful to more than two missionaries and I could not forget to pray for all without casting aside simple priests whose mission at times is as difficult to carry out as that of apostles preaching to the infidels.

So her heart expanded to pray for all priests, "missionary" and "simple", in addition to her two "brothers".

What of her well-known desire to be a priest?

In last weekend's Tablet letters section, a correspondent, Katharine Salmon, writes:

What sustained Therese was her absolute confidence in the love of God, and this confidence was reflected in the certainty that God had called her to Carmel, and to the ordained priesthood, something she could not live out in earthly life, but would in heaven. It seems surprising that since Thérèse was declared Doctor of the Church in 1997, only one of her biographers, Claude Langlois, has linked her vocation to love and her vocation to priesthood. In this year of the priest, it may be helpful for those reflecting on the renewal of ordained ministry to look anew at the priesthood Thérèse speaks about – a priesthood where there is room for women and men in all states of life. She has been known as the patron saint of women’s ordination for several decades. On the occasion of her relics’ visit to Britain, let those who believe in a renewed ordained priesthood for women and men ask Thérèse for a shower of heavenly roses.

The appropriation of St Therese for the cause of the ordination of women is not news to me but it is not justified. It is an exageration to suggest that the certainty of a vocation to the priesthood is what sustained Therese. It was love that sustained her, and she found all the "vocations" she felt summed up in love, to be love at the heart of the Church.

This is what St Therese writes about her feelings of vocation to the priesthood:

To be Your Spouse, to be a Carmelite, and by my union with You to be the Mother of souls, should not this suffice me? And yet it is not so. No doubt, these three privileges sum up my true vocation: Carmelite, Spouse, Mother, and yet I feel within me other vocations. I feel the vocation of the WARRIOR, THE PRIEST, THE APOSTLE, THE DOCTOR, THE MARTYR. Finally, I feel the need and the desire of carrying out the most heroic deeds for You, O Jesus. I feel within my soul the courage of the Crusader, the Papal Guard, and I would want to die on the field of battle in defence of the Church.

I feel in me the vocation of the PRIEST. With what love, O Jesus, I would carry You in my hands when, at my voice, You would come down from heaven. And with what love would I give You to souls! But alas! while desiring to be a Priest, I admire and envy the humiliy of St Francis of Assisi and I feel the vocation of imitating him in refusing the sublime dignity of the Priesthood.

St Therese's use of the word "vocation" is one of analogy and expresses desire rather than an objective calling from God. She is very clear that her true vocation is to be a Carmelite, a Spouse, a Mother. All the other "vocations" are things that she desires but is certain that are not the will of God for her. Her heart is huge and has great desires, as every Christian heart should. But we cannot all be head, hands, feet, ear, mouth as St Paul reminds us. And St Therese finally says that her vocation, as regards the priesthood, is that of St Franics: to refuse it.

In this year of the Priesthood, in addition to praying to St Therese for all priests, "missionary" and "simple", we could ask her to intercede for all women, particularly those who are confused about the reasons why they cannot be priests, that they also may find their true vocations in love at the heart of the Church. This indeed would be "a shower of heavenly roses" as Katherine Salmon hopes will be granted through St Therese's prayers.

A thriving Dominican Order of Sisters in Michigan

Whilst on holiday I picked up a card about the Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist. The card has the following Fast Facts:

• Order founded in 1997 with four sisters.
• Community has grown to over 80 sisters in just 11 years.
• Average age of the sisters is 28.
• Average age of women who enter is 21.
• Sisters come from over half the States across America, various Provinces in Canada, as well as Europe and the Caribbean.

"We are consecrated women first, and so our foremost model is Mary, the Mother of God. Inspired by the charism of St Dominic, our prayer life comes frist so that our apostlate overflows from a contemplation nourished before the Eucharist." Mother Mary Assumpta Long, OP

Young ladies, go check.

UPDATE: See updated statistics in the Combox.

Address: 4597 Warren Road, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48105
Phone: 1 734 994 7437
Fax: 1 734 994 7438
E: sjab@sistersofmary.org