Pregnancy Outreach Center to open in Holley at St. Mary’s

Opening celebration, dedication Mass set for July 11

Press Release, Orleans Niagara East Catholic Community

HOLLEY – The Orleans Niagara East Catholic Community (ONE Catholic) has announced that the opening and dedication of the Saint Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center will take place at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Holley on July 11 at 4 p.m.

“The St. Gianna Molla Pregnancy Outreach Center in Holley will be the 8th center in the Diocese of Buffalo,” said Father Mark Noonan, Pastor of ONE Catholic. “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.”

The July 11 opening celebration will begin with a dedication Mass at 4 p.m. in St. Mary’s Church, followed by the blessing of the new center in the St. Mary’s Parish Ministry Center next to the church. A reception will follow, and all are welcome.

The namesake of the outreach center, Saint Gianna, 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, will be attending the dedication Mass and opening on July 11 in Holley.

“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 who, with her husband Bob, are directors of the center. “We hope to provide a caring and compassionate atmosphere to assist families from pregnancy through the first years of life.”

Once the Holley center is established, ONE Catholic plans to open a satellite office to meet with families at Holy Trinity Parish in Medina.