14-Year-Old girl Who Was killed for Resisting Rape May Be Canonized. Her Story Like That of Saint Maria Goretti

[Divine3]

Excellent! Right on! I couldn’t understand what some of the women( I think they are all women) wrote about this young girl and her heroic virtue. God help us, we have had martyrs since the time of Christianity who died because they would not give in to sick, evil, and lustful men who threatened girls if they would not marry them etc. Rape is an evil violation, a violent act that God’s justice will take care of but this story is about God protecting his daughter as she fought against their evil designs. She is the victor in the end. Death is not the end of life but the beginning of eternal life. Her suffering no longer exist. May she pray for all women, young girls and anyone who has suffered violence from evil minded people.

 

[Neithan]

but the overall gist was that if you don’t fight to the death or killed afterwards, you aren’t holy.

I think we should question whether that is truly the overall gist or whether it is poorly worded and we are outraged at a possible misinterpretation of it. In that case, the outrage isn’t worth very much beyond the satisfaction of indulging our irascible appetite. We’re becoming outrage-aholics.

 

[Anicette]

It does not seems that this young woman may be canonized because she lives an holy live and evangelized her friends.

It is because she died as a martyr. As a testimony of her faith in resisting a rape.
And the great outcome of her death, is that her story moved people’s faith. The evangelisation’s fruits come after her death. Without them, whe would have stayed an anonymous martyr, and never been a candidate to sainthood.

Martyrdoom can be a way to sainthood since the beginining. The first martyr is Etienne in the Bible. Martyrs begets Christians. Jesus die on a cross to Save us.

Faith and faithfullness to our Lord is sometimes more important than our earthly life.

Lord, have mercy of all the actual martyrs, particularly in Africa and in the Middle East.

NOTE: No one, and definitely not the Church say that rape victims are sinful. Being rape is not a choice, and it is often not possible to resist. The sin is on the rapist.

 

[Annie]

To be defiled by rape is not to say that there is something wrong with the victim anymore than to say the Host is defiled by improper reception.

Defiled in this way is used instead of the word rape which makes sense in a rather formal document.

Additionally, this is English as used as a common language in a different country, descended from British English. We can not impose US linguistic mores on it like this.

This is the story of a girl who showed heroic virtue, which is why she is considered worthy of canonization. This type of action is not what is expected by anyone, which is what sets her apart.

 

[Londoner]

More troubling reporting of this here:

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2019/05/catholic-teenager-i-will-rather-die-than-surrender-to-rapists/

By coincidence, Vivian was said to have on that November 15, 2009 morning, in a Bible study, talked about St Maria Gorreti and admonished her study mates to emulate Gorreti and never succumb to any form of immorality.

The 14-year-old was said to have preferred to keep her dignity by losing her life, rather than being defiled …

Vivian … told the group of young girls in the group about the values of chastity.

She described a woman’s worth and pride as being able to hold her virginity until marriage.

Governor Godwin Obaseki has hailed the exemplary moral virtue upheld by the girl.

“We are on a mission to rebuild our society and the foundation for rebuilding the society starts from ethics and morality. It is not enough to talk about how society should be like. We want to see people who have walked the talk”, the governor said.

[emphasis added]

Are you implying a negative reason to her heroic act?

I think the only implication was that by declaring it good and holy for somebody to be killed rather than suffer a rape some people in the Church could be adding to the sense of shame and guilt already experienced by many victims which in turn is a reason why rape and other sexual offences are under-reported.

This is the same sort of thing: there is nothing wrong at all with submitting to a rape, but resisting even unto death is heroic virtue “above and beyond the call of duty.”

I’m not persuaded that one can draw any meaningful comparison between a soldier who shows valour above and beyond the call of duty in the face of the enemy and how somebody reacts to a sex crime. A soldier is under an obligation to defeat the enemy to the best of his ability until ordered by his superiors to stand down. To continue in an effort to defeat the enemy at personal risk above and beyond one’s obligation is indeed heroic. In the case of an attempted rape, however, the victim is under no obligation to offer resistance. Indeed, it could be just as heroic to allow oneself to be raped in order to save one’s life as it could be to allow oneself to be killed in order to avoid being raped. It is simply a matter of survival. When forced to choose between two unspeakably awful alternatives, neither could be said to be more virtuous than the other. If one says that a victim of an attempted rape who is killed has shown heroism above and beyond the call of duty it does rather imply that somebody who is actually raped has chosen the less heroic option. One cannot avoid the implication that not being raped is somehow more virtuous than being raped.

 

[Londoner]

we now demonize the woman who chooses to fight rape. We sneer at her.

I don’t think anyone has said that.

It is because she died as a martyr. As a testimony of her faith in resisting a rape.

Again, I am not sure how resisting a rape is a testimony of somebody’s faith. How does resisting a rape make somebody a martyr for the Catholic faith? Notwithstanding your assurances to the contrary, there seems to be an inescapable suggestion that somebody who has not been raped is in some sense a better Catholic than somebody who has been raped.

Additionally, this is English as used as a common language in a different country, descended from British English. We can not impose US linguistic mores on it like this.

I speak to Nigerians often enough to be able to assure you that Nigerian English is not all that different to English as it is spoken in the UK, Ireland, USA, Canada, Australia, or New Zealand. I have noticed that highly educated Nigerians occasionally use slightly archaic ways of saying things, but then so does US English, which sometimes has preserved forms that are now obsolete in British English (a good example is the word “gotten”, which British people now think of as American, but was in fact formerly standard British English too).

This is the story of a girl who showed heroic virtue

I would say that is showed considerable bravery for a 14-year-old girl to put up a fight against an adult male armed with a gun. I am not persuaded, however, that is useful to talk about this in terms of “virtue”. For me it is much too closely connected with the idea of “honour”.

 

[Annie]

would say that is showed considerable bravery for a 14-year-old girl to put up a fight against an adult male armed with a gun. I am not persuaded, however, that is useful to talk about this in terms of “virtue”. For me it is much too closely connected with the idea of “honour”.

“Heroic virtue” is a specific phrase often applied to saints meaning a supernatural level of virtue. Those holy enough to accept the extraordinary grace offered in certain situations to allow them to exhibit such a high degree of virtue have two gifts: one, the level of holiness (which itself comes from grace from God and acceptance from the person) and a certain type of event accompanied by extraordinary grace from God to exhibit heroic virtue.

Consider those cases we hear of wherein someone lifts a car off someone’s body. This is called a superhuman level of strength, right? We consider it beyond what is ordinary in every aspect, and we do not think any less of those who do not have the same experience under those rare circumstances.

 

[Sarcelle]

we now demonize the woman who chooses to fight rape. We sneer at her. “You holier than thou traitor! Why do you try to make us feel as if we’re not as good as you? Why did you fight? Your death is meaningless! You are nothing! People like you show everything wrong about religion and faith! How COULD the Church even THINK about holding up ‘these women’ as saints? Don’t they realize how they are hurting the feelings of all the women who didn’t die during a rape? The nerve. . .”

Who in this thread has said that?

I certainly never said it.

 

[F_Marturana]

Yes.

Also, she resisted the assault because she didn’t want her assailant to commit sin. She was concerned about his soul.

 

[Sarcelle]

This is the part that is often misunderstood about Maria Goretti.

She resisted because she was concerned about the soul of the attacker. She returned violence with love and not because she retained her virginity.

That is valorous virtue. This mirrors Jesus on the cross when he forgave his killers while on the cross.

St. Joan of Arc was raped while in prison but that she still became a saint. Being raped does not defile you.

 

[F_Marturana]

I didn’t know that about St. Joan. She suffered so much.

 

[stpurl]

But we also need to be careful that in our correct understanding that rape does not defile the victim (meaning that if, in spite of everything, one is overpowered and has one’s virginity taken away, one is not guilty of sin), we do not downplay the whole idea of the beauty and sanctity of virginity itself, and the need to protect one’s virgin purity.

Because so many of us have either been forced, or have actually, tragically, chosen to give that virginity outside of marriage, we have I believe gone too far in an effort not to make the few who suffer rape as virgins not feel as though they are ‘lesser’. They are not ‘lesser’. But striving to keep one’s virginity, even with danger of death through doing so, is still a heroic action.

 

[Anicette]

St. Joan of Arc was raped while in prison but that she still became a saint. Being raped does not defile you.

It seems not to be the case.

The hypothesis is popularised by Luc Besson’s film.

Some use some sources of the trial to develop this hypothesis (a english lord forced her in prison), but others direct sources contradict it (she was assaulted many times but resist). And that was the reason she use again the man’s coat. Jehanne had made of private vow of virginity of virginity and said when whe was condamned to be burn that how her virginal body who had never been soiled can be treated with such a cruelty by being consumned by the fire?

A rape seems not to be the hypothesis the Church choose when she canonized Jeanne d’Arc.

 

[Sarcelle]

Okay

Even so, rape victims have not committed sin by being raped.

 

[Convert3]

Isn’t this entirely about her forgiving her attacker?

 

[Bruised_Reed]

Even so, rape victims have not committed sin by being raped.

True, and I think it needs to be clear that victims have not sinned if they did not fight back. Some people on CAF, in the past, think that not fighting back means victims are complicit.

With the information presented so far I do not see heroic virtue. No one wants to be raped and fighting back is a natural reaction.

 

[Bruised_Reed]

I would think it would be. Maria told Alessandro “it is a sin”. So is murder.

 

[Pitcairn17]

If someone were killed resisting armed robbery or attempted kidnapping, would they be similarly considered heroic? Or is this - meaning no disrespect to the victim here - how the Church’s view of sex plays out in such a circumstance?

 

[mdgspencer]

.
Question: Would someone be considered heroic for resisting armed robbery?
There was a case like this in the early Church. A government official ordered the deacon, St. Lawrence< to turn over the treasures of the Church. He said he would bring the treasures. When he returned, he brought the poor of Rome and said these ate the treasures of the Church. Then St. Lawrence was executed, and is considered a martyr.
The Church doesn’t canonize someone for simply resisting robbery, but in this case he is called a saint for his heroic Christian virtue important in the story. That is the important thing.

 

[Londoner]

I understand what heroic virtue is. I just don’t understand why resisting an attempted rape is an example of heroic virtue. It is one of a number of possible natural responses to those circumstances. The person in your example who lifts up a car to save somebody trapped underneath it would not be made a saint for doing so. The implication is that fighting off a rapist is in some way a specifically Catholic thing to do.

we do not downplay the whole idea of the beauty and sanctity of virginity itself, and the need to protect one’s virgin purity.

we have I believe gone too far in an effort not to make the few who suffer rape as virgins not feel as though they are ‘lesser’. They are not ‘lesser’. But striving to keep one’s virginity, even with danger of death through doing so, is still a heroic action.

I don’t agree with this at all. Somebody who is raped does not lose their virginity or, to use your term, “purity”. Being raped does not involve loss of virginity, purity, beauty, or sanctity.