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

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Playing? Wow, way to trivialize another person’s response. Not exactly the way to exchange ideas but. . .

How DO you feel about those Christians throughout the history of our Faith who chose to die rather than renounce God in thought, word, or action?
 
Londoner said:
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.
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Resisting rape is not necessarily an act of heroic virtue. But responses to someone trying to rape someone do not often include the idea of preferring to die rather than to be raped, to refuse or even to fight to the death to prevent the rape.

A lot of people in that situation will at some point acquiesce in order to preserve their own life. This does not mean that of these people, none will die, but that they are acting in a way to follow that slight chance of surviving the rape.

And that is OK, don’t get me wrong; it just does not constitute heroic virtue.

The fact that the person lifting the car would not be made a saint for doing so simply shows that you are not considering the analogy I am proposing.

Suppose my loved one is trapped under a car. Despite my best efforts, I am unable to life the car and he dies.

No one would blame me for being unable to lift the car. No one would say I had somehow failed. and no one would think I had somehow done the wrong thing.

No one would say, Hey, I read about this guy who lifted a car and saved someone’s life, so what is wrong with you?

And the fact that this physiological phenomenon does not trigger a cause for canonization is irrelevant because it is an analogy. It does trigger a widespread news reportage, and if the feat were accompanied by a number of other factors, could propell a person into current culture’s canonization: celrbrity.

To get back to the Catholic aspect: in addition, there are a lot of factors. Suppose a person is completely willing to die rather than to be raped, but is overpowered somehow and raped without being killed. Then the problem would be that the person did not have the opportunity to display the heroic virtue possessed. And this does not make the person less holy, simply less known.

Additionally, a person could be killed despite their desire not to be killed. In this case, the person lacks an heroic level of virtue, but that is ok, because God rarely grants that.

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I love this flower. I love to look at it up close and see its perfection, the care God put into it just as He does famous large flowers like roses or orchids.

Because this flower is only about 1/4 of an inch, maybe half, and is from a plant called henbit, a weed many spend big bucks on eradicating 😦

And yet this flower is beautifully made…

Just because it is small, just because it is a weed, doesn’t mean God put less care into it.

In the same way, just because one holy person becomes famous because of some big event doesn’t mean that God does not care for the “little” saint just as much.

It’s simply that they are different, not that either is worth less.
 
I am reminded of St. Tarcisius, an early saint and martyr. He was a young boy who was carrying some communion hosts to the sick after attending a secret Mass in the days of Roman persecution. He was intent on his mission and held on to the communion hosts securely.

He was accosted by others who wanted to see what he was holding in protection, but he would not allow them access. They ended up beating him up and stoning him. He was rescued by a Roman Christian soldier, but died of his wounds. He was declared a martyr. Would it have been a sin for him to surrender the communion hosts to save his life? Probably not, but he was declared a saint for his heroic virtue of resistance.

There were also those who died for refusing to toss a bit of incense to the image of the emperor as a god. Even if they had given in, their intent would not have been idolatry, but they refused at the cost of their life. Heroic virtue is not something much recognized in our times.
 
Annie said:
Resisting rape is not necessarily an act of heroic virtue. But responses to someone trying to rape someone do not often include the idea of preferring to die rather than to be raped, to refuse or even to fight to the death to prevent the rape.

A lot of people in that situation will at some point acquiesce in order to preserve their own life. This does not mean that of these people, none will die, but that they are acting in a way to follow that slight chance of surviving the rape.

And that is OK, don’t get me wrong; it just does not constitute heroic virtue.
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Excatly! This was the virtue of this young girl. She prefered and claimed it publically before, that she would prefered to die in order to prevent her from being raped. That’s what is important.

As the nigerian cardinal said, quoting Jesus,
“It must be because God wants to use her to tell a story that we are so anxious to try to save our lives and in that … we give in to everything thinking that we are saving our lives whereas Jesus said those who want to save their lives will lose it and those who lose their lives for his sake will gain it"

The horrible fact she was kidnapped is partly due to “chance” even if these risks are much more important in where she lived than in other part of the world. She did not choose that.
She prefered death to rape. Her intention is crucial. The result is partly due to chance. She had the chance to not being raped before to be killed. Another rapist may have been raped anyway despite her resistance. Only one think seems almost certain: if she had shown no resistance, she would have been raped, and chances were whe would be killed anyway…

If we resume her life.
This child was very smart and a leader person who lived an exemplary live of faith.
She had great responsabilities in the childhood movmement of her parish and conduded charitative actions to help the poors.
She proposed to the children to make some sacrifices for their own conversion and to fit some of the needs of poorer children.
She speaks to children to the faith, holiness and to preserve their virginity. She quoted Maria Goretti as her model in holiness.

She has an holy Curriculum vitae for a 14 years old! She was a living exemple of the faith, without doubt.

It is hard to say, as a devil advocate would said it, that she don’t show “virtue” in her life.

And her heritage continued after her death, with pilgrimnages, a movement…

https://www.vivianogu.org/
 
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Anicette said:
“It must be because God wants to use her to tell a story that we are so anxious to try to save our lives and in that … we give in to everything thinking that we are saving our lives whereas Jesus said those who want to save their lives will lose it and those who lose their lives for his sake will gain it"
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That bowled me over!
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And Tarcisius is the patron of altar boys.
It showed them that the protection of the eucharist might go as far as dying as a martyr.

No one has the due to die as a martyr. We would not be shamed, excommunicated, and if God’s willing no promised to damnation to not have fight until our death to preserve our dignity toward assault, God from being profanated in the host, or made a public apostasy etc.

Many women of the first centuries are recognized as “virgin” and “martyr” to have refused to marry a pagan in order to honor their private vow of virginity, or for having resisted to sexual sollicitations and prefered being tortured until death instead.

It is not for everyone, and should not be, but our Church recognized it as virtuous.
 
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Starting here.

28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him.

And since scripture doesn’t give every detail about what happened one can fill in the blanks from what is known from history, in this case roman executions. This blog post (and the comments) discuss some things that likely happened even if scripture didn’t explicitly mention them.

From the comments:
Without speculating as to whether Jesus was raped or not, Michael Trainor draws the same conclusion from his reading of the stripping in Matthew’s account “Matthew’s Jesus is now a victim of sexual abuse. The exposure of Jesus’ penis, the symbol of sexual power and identity, is the ultimate act of shaming and abuse. The forced removal of his clothes is an act that erases his social identity. He is now without any cultural, social, religious, political and sexual identity.” Forced stripping for the gratification of the viewer has long been acknowledged as a form of sexual violence against victims. Sexual abuse is a far wider activity than just those acts that involve touch or penetration.
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It might be good to remember that Vivian Ogu’s sainthood cause apparently just opened this year so she is a brand new Servant of God. She is a long way from being a saint; I don’t think her cause will just automatically “sail through”. Nobody’s cause just “sails through” unless we’re discussing a global figure on the order of St Mother Teresa or St Pope JPII. No doubt her postulators would like to see her considered a martyr for the faith instead of just a crime victim. If she’s a martyr it will speed her canonization by allowing her to skip steps. That’s what’s likely behind the narrative, at least partly.

In any event, considering that there are hundreds or thousands of Servants of God whose causes don’t progress, and it doesn’t look like the Vatican has even received her initial document file from her home diocese which conducts the initial investigation, it’s a bit early to start discussing the “Church position” on her, as the Church apart from the bishop pushing her cause hasn’t taken an official position as far as I can see.
 
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Anicette said:
But responses to someone trying to rape someone do not often include the idea of preferring to die rather than to be raped, to refuse or even to fight to the death to prevent the rape.
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I disagree. I’ve thought it and I’ve heard women strongly assert this; they can’t imagine anything worse so they think it is preferable to die. Even today, with the stigma attacked to victims of sexual assault, death seems preferable.

Sexual assault advocates and activists try to re-frame this thinking so the victim can know they did nothing to deserve it, are not to blame, and that there is no shame in being a victim. So if that effort is working, one hopes that victims or anyone thinking about the possibility won’t think that they would rather die than be raped.
 
What in the world are you talking about when you say this?
I mean, Jesus was sexually assaulted but he was also killed.
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Sources, please?
 
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14-Year-Old girl Who Was killed for Resisting Rape May Be Canonized. Her Story Like That of Saint Maria Goretti Spirituality
Starting here. 28 They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, 29 and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand. Then they knelt in front of him and mocked him. “Hail, king of the Jews!” they said. 30 They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. 31 After they had mocked him, they took off the robe and put his own clothes on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. And since scripture doesn’t…
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While I agree the Jesus discussion is a bit off topic, there are plenty of Stations of the Cross books that describe Jesus being stripped naked in public as an outrage against purity. The accompanying prayer for that station also sometimes focused on us pledging not to commit sins against purity because in doing so we were participating in Jesus’ stripping. So yes, his stripping, coupled with the fact that he hung on the cross totally naked for 3 hours (the loincloth shown on crucifixes is an artistic modesty addition that the Romans didn’t bother with) can easily be seen as a type of sexual humiliation/ molestation.

This is not a new idea, although any sort of focus on purity is more often found in old traditional prayer books than in the newer “social justice” or “scripture based” booklets.
 
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I’m sorry if I misinterpreted you. However no one is judging her intentions at all. They are judging the into tions of those who suggest that she deserves canonization because she avoided rape.
 
It might make a lively, if short-lived, topic in the Sacred Scripture forum.
 
I can second this: when I was a virgin I definitely felt that I would rather be murdered than raped. Now that I’m married and know what sex is actually like, I realise that a rape would be horribly traumatic but at the same time it is not something I would consider “a fate worse than death”.
 
The question is on topic because it is about victims of sexual assault and how they are perceived. If you read the links I provided and those within the blog post you will read that some people are offended that Jesus could be considered a victim of sexual assault; they see victims as complicit or not quite innocent. Jesus is perfectly innocent so he can’t possibly have been sexually assaulted.
 
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