Pregnancy outreach center opens at St. Mary’s in Holley

Daughter of Saint Gianna joins in grand opening celebration

Photos by Michael Mroziak/Western New York Catholic: Father Mark Noonan, pastor of the Orleans Niagara East (ONE) Catholic Community, blesses the newly opened St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center located on the grounds of St. Mary’s Church in Holley. Jim Simon of Lyndonville, chairman of the pastoral council for ONE Catholic, holds the portrait of St. Gianna Beretta Molla.

Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla, daughter of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, speaks inside St. Mary Church in Holley last Thrusday at the conclusion of a Mass celebrating the opening of the newest St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center. The center is adjacent to the church. Standing with her is Cheryl Calire, who heads the Diocese of Buffalo’s Life Ministries.

HOLLEY – The pregnancy outreach center opened last Thursday at the St. Mary’s Parish Ministry Center in Holley, and the daughter of a saint was there for the grand opening celebration.

The center is named for St. Gianna Beretta Molla, who was born in 1922 in Milan, Italy.  As a young woman she became a pediatrician and wife. She and her husband, Pietro, had three children, and yet Gianna was able to balance the demands of motherhood, wife and doctor.

In 1961 she became pregnant with their 4th child, but learned early in the pregnancy that she had cancer. Gianna, herself a doctor, refused to take any steps that would place her child in danger. Accepting the risks that carrying her child to term meant for her, she insisted in the days prior to giving birth, “If you must decide between me and the child, do not hesitate: choose the child – I insist on it – save him.”

On April 21, 1962, Sr. Gianna gave birth to her daughter, Gianna Emanuela, and despite all efforts to treat St. Gianna, she passed away a week after giving birth. She was canonized a Saint by Pope St. John Paul II on May 16, 2004.

The daughter for whom she gave her life, Gianna Emanuela Molla, attended the dedication Mass and opening of the new center on July 11 in Holley.

Father Mark Noonan, pastor of the Catholic churches in Orleans and eastern Niagara counties, heard the inspirational story of St. Gianna firsthand from the pope. Father Noonan was the celebrant for this special Mass last Thursday.

The St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center in Holley is the 8th center in the Diocese of Buffalo, Noonan said.

“We are grateful to be able to serve families by providing material, emotional and spiritual support to mothers, fathers and families in need during and after pregnancy,” he said.

Kathy and Bob Schumacher are directors of the center. ONE Catholic plans to open a satellite office to meet with families at Holy Trinity Parish in Medina.

“We are so incredibly blessed to have St. Gianna’s daughter be a living witness to the heroic virtue of her mother at our dedication and opening,” said Kathy Schumacher. “We hope to provide a caring and compassionate atmosphere to assist families from pregnancy through the first years of life.”

Dr. Gianna Emanuela Molla reacts with joy entering St. Mary’s Catholic Church last Thursday.