'Don't come home before midnight!' - a dying girl's gift to her parents

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Blessed Chiara Luce Badano (1971-1990)

The patron of the Congress Youth Space  at the 50th International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Dublin from 10 to 17 June is Blessed Chiara Luce Badano (1971-1990). In the September-October 2010 issue ofMisyon we published an article about her, TheSaint Who Failed Math.  

Ruggero and Maria Teresa Badano with their infant daughter

In the June 2012 issue of Intercom, the monthly published by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, Fr Patrick Leahy tells a lovely story about this only child who was born to her parents Ruggero and Maria Teresa on 29 October 1971, eleven years after they married and who died 22 days short of her 19th birthday. On St Valentine’s Day 1990, when she was already very sick, Blessed Chiara Luce booked a meal for her parents at a local restaurant. Before they went there she said to them, ‘This evening look at one another in the eyes, and don’t come home before midnight!’ She then turned to her mother and said, ‘And remember, Mum, before me, there was Dad’.


I wish that every married couple had the clarity that this young person had, that the foundational relationship in the family is that between husband and wife, not between parent and child. The latter is a consequence of the first.

You can watch a short video about Blessed Chiara Luce here. [For some reason I can't post videos on this site lately. I don't know why.]
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Comments

  1. Ruth Ann Pilney10:37 am, June 04, 2012

    Thank you for this touching post about Chiara. The video was good,too. She was my patron for the year 2011. It was difficult to find information about her then.

    Blessed Chiara is a good choice as patron of the Youth Space. I believe we need to give more encouragement to children and youth to strive for holiness. They need models like Chiara to see that good friendships, joy and holiness are compatible.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12:35 pm, June 04, 2012

    Must read Fr..thankyou..

    ReplyDelete
  3. joannaB735:34 pm, June 04, 2012

    What a great story and inspirational video :-)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Fr Seán Coyle6:27 am, June 05, 2012

    Ruth Ann, joy and holiness are not only compatible, I don't believe you can be holy without being joyful. Being joyful is not being 'happy-clappy' but is a gift given by Jesus himself in the depths of our being.

    I hope that Blessed Chiara Luce becomes more widely known.

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