Gianna Emanuela Molla visits cemetery garden named for her parents

After years of planning, Gianna Emanuela Molla, the daughter of St. Gianna Beretta Molla, has come to Buffalo. The Italian-born physician began a small tour of Western New York on July 11 at Mount Olivet Cemetery in Kenmore, which dedicated a garden in honor of her parents.

“I feel very happy, honored and deeply grateful to all the people who made this possible, because this cemetery, I’m sure will give a great hope, a great consolation to many spouses who suffer for the loss of their children,” Molla said following a blessing and dedication ceremony.

Although cemeteries are often a place of sadness and grief, diocesan vicar general Father Peter Karalus, who led the blessing, said they should also be seen as a place of hope.

“When we take a look at this cemetery, any cemetery, where the faithful rest, it also needs to be for us, a place of hope. We can take a look around and see each and every grave marker, and that is the sign of a believer,” he said. “And we believe what Jesus says in the Gospel, we believe those tombs will open on the last day, that great day when history and time will all be returned to God, and we shall share in the resurrection, the new life, the glory, the glory that Jesus has achieved by carrying the cross and rising from the dead.”

Gianna Beretta Molla was a pediatrician who died in 1962 of peritonitis a week after the birth of Gianna Emanuela. She had been diagnosed with fibroma in her uterus. Advised to have an abortion, Gianna Beretta chose to risk her own life rather than that of her daughter.

Gianna Emanuela Molla became a geriatrician and cared for her father in the later years of his life.

“I feel to be very blessed by our Lord for having given me such parents,” Gianna Emanuela told those gathered at Mount Olivet. “The main teaching that they gave to me is that, reflecting on their lives, I made the consideration that my mom’s and my dad’s life teach me the way of the cross is certainly the right way I have to follow to be able one day to enjoy the Father’s joy forever.”

The St. Gianna & Pietro Molla Family Garden is part of a multiyear plan to have a place to honor children, their parents and grandparents. It will create space for parents to be buried near the children who they lost years earlier. 

The Family Garden in made possible through the partnership of the Diocese of Buffalo, Catholic Cemeteries, Catholic Health, Eternal Choice of Love led by Cheryl and David Calire, OLV Charities and Bond, Schoeneck & King.