St. Maria Goretti, Jared Loughner, and Judge John Roll

All day I've been thinking about St. Maria Goretti. If you don't know her story I'll recap it briefly here. Maria was born in 1890, the third child in a family of poor Italian peasants. Maria's parents lost their farm and were forced to move and work for other farmers. When Maria was nine her father died of malaria and her mother had to work in the fields with her brothers. Maria was a pius little girl. On her first Communion day in 1901, Maria's special request of God was to allow her to receive Communion again soon. This was in the days before Pope Pius X encouraged the practice of frequent, even daily Communion.

Maria's family was so poor, to help make ends meet, they shared their house with a father and son, Giovanni and Alessandro Serenelli, a teenager. One day when she was alone in the house tending her baby sister, Alessandro, who had sexually harrassed Maria numerous times approached her and demanded she have relations with him. When Maria refused, saying, "No, Alessandro, it is a sin," he stabbed her numerous times. She was eleven years old. Maria died the next day after unspeakable suffering but not before she forgave Alessandro for his cruel actions.

For three years Alessandro was unrepentant in jail, but he began to have a change of heart after a local bishop visited him. He also dreamed of Maria who brought him lilies which burned up in his hands. Alessandro repented and when he was released from jail went to Maria's mother and begged her forgiveness which she freely gave. They both attended Maria's canonization in 1950. Alessandro prayed every day to Maria and called her "my little saint." She is one of the youngest saints of the Church.

So what does Maria Goretti have to do with Jared Loughner and the murder of Judge John Roll? As Fr. John Hardon often said, there are no coincedences, nothing "just happens." Judge Roll, a daily Communicant and devout Catholic, was present at that event for a reason. Is he to be the catalyst for the conversion of a murderer? When Alessandro went to Assunta, Maria's mother, shortly after his release from prison and asked for forgiveness she replied that if Maria could forgive him on her deathbed, she could do no less. Did Judge Roll have a chance to think about what was happening before he died? Did he see his assailant? We will never know, but we do know that he went to Communion shortly before those fateful moments at the shopping center. Jesus was present and crucified again in the suffering and death of His faithful servant. I'm asking the intercession of John Roll for the conversion of his murderer. Imagine the power of him praying for his killer. May his ultimate sacrifice become the hope of salvation for a poor lost soul in the service of Satan.