{"id":25101,"date":"2009-11-20T13:42:15","date_gmt":"2009-11-20T17:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/11\/not-squandering-illness-termin\/"},"modified":"2009-11-20T13:42:15","modified_gmt":"2009-11-20T17:42:15","slug":"not-squandering-illness-termin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/2009\/11\/not-squandering-illness-termin\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Squandering illness: Terminally ill priest meets with Pope, offers sufferings for the Church"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n\"Father<\/a><\/p>\n

The <\/i>Catholic News Agency ran this brief article yesterday (11\/19\/2009).
\nIt captured my mind and heart, like it did for others, because I know two
\npeople with Lou Gehrig’s disease (and one is also a priest) and another priest
\nwho’s living with MS. The courage, love and patience these men have witnessed
\nis incredible. At least I think so.<\/i><\/p>\n


<\/i><\/p>\n

Father Luigi
\nSquarcia, a pastor in the Italian town of Acquapendente who has suffered from
\nLou Gehrig’s disease for the last four years, met with Pope Benedict XVI on
\nWednesday and offered his “sufferings for the good of the Church.”<\/p>\n

After the
\nmeeting with the Holy Father in Paul VI Hall, Father Squarcia said, “I came to offer
\nthe Pope my sufferings for the good of the Church<\/b>. I am here, for the
\nfirst time, after years of working with the parishioners and the children at
\nour school.”<\/p>\n

Now, he told L’Osservatore Romano<\/i>, “I can no longer move my arms
\nor legs and I know I will lose my speech and later maybe the ability to
\nbreathe.”  He noted that more people than ever are coming to him for the
\nSacrament of Reconciliation<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Lou Gehrig’s disease is a serious neuromuscular
\ndisorder that causes muscle weakness, disability and eventually death.<\/p>\n

*Father Luigi in a 2004 photo.<\/p>\n

If you
\nwant a keener sense of what Father Luigi is speaking of when he says I am came
\noffer my sufferings for the Church, then I would suggest you read Pope John Paul II’s 1984 encyclical, Salvifici
\nDoloris<\/a><\/i>, where he deals with notions of suffering and how it can be redemptive. That is, how suffering can be useful for the salvation of the work if we unite
\nour suffering to that of Christ’s. Putting suffering to good use otherwise it will eat you alive and deaden you affectively and spiritually. If not redemptive then it’s all-consuming and verging on nihilistic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Catholic News Agency ran this brief article yesterday (11\/19\/2009). It captured my mind and heart, like it did for others, because I know two people with Lou Gehrig’s disease (and one is also a priest) and another priest who’s living with MS. The courage, love and patience these men have witnessed is incredible. At … Continue reading Not Squandering illness: Terminally ill priest meets with Pope, offers sufferings for the Church<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[2234,1785,2235,2236],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25101\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/communio.stblogs.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}