George Tiller, Scott Roeder, Alessandro Serenelli, Abba Apollo and Redemption

Dr. George Tiller was a late-term abortionist for many years. He was murdered while serving as an usher in his Lutheran church on May 31, 2009 by Scott Roeder. What Roeder did was horrific and showed a complete lack of understanding regarding the Christian vision of the dignity of human life. No one who truly follows the One who said "I am the way, and the truth, and the life" (John 14:6) could commit such a terrible act.

Dr. Tiller also seemed to not understand the Jesus who is the way, the truth, and the life. No one who kills unborn children for a living as he did is walking the way of truth and life. That being said, he did not deserve to be murdered. Quite the contrary, he needed to live longer to repent and change his life.

I have been thinking of Alessandro Serenelli, the man who attempted to rape and then killed St. Maria Goretti. Serenelli spent thirty years in prison. While in prison he repented of his crime, and after his release sought the forgiveness of St. Maria's mother, Assunta. She forgave him, to the point where they received the Eucharist at Christmas Mass together. Serenelli became a Capuchin tertiary and worked on the grounds of a Capuchin monastery for the remainder of his life.

Serenelli committed a terrible crime. Rather than committing himself further to evil, he changed. Through St. Maria, God worked a miracle in Serenelli, and he spent his life trying to serve that miraculous God.

There is also the story of Abba Apollo. He was one of the Desert Fathers--religious men (and sometimes women) who lived alone or in small communities in the Egyptian desert from the latter part of the second century to about the mid-fourth century. Abba Apollo did not start out as a holy man:

It was said of a certain Abba Apollo of Scetis, that he had been a shepherd and was very uncouth. He had seen a pregnant woman in the field one day and being urged by the devil, he had said, ‘I should like to see how the child lies in her womb.’ So he ripped her up and saw the foetus. Immediately his heart was troubled and, filled with compunction, he went to Scetis and told the Fathers what he had done. Now he heard them chanting, ‘The years of our age are three score years and ten, and even by reason strength fourscore; yet their span is but toil and trouble’ (Ps. 90:10). He said to them, ‘I am forty years old and I have not made one prayer; and now, if I live another year, I shall not cease to pray God that he may pardon my sins.’ In fact, he did not work with his hands but passed all his time in prayer, saying, ‘I, who as man have sinned, do you, as God, forgive.’ So his prayer became his activity by night and day. A brother who lived with him heard him saying, ‘I have sinned against you, Lord; forgive me, that I may enjoy a little peace.’ And he was sure that God had forgiven him all his sins, including the murder of the woman; but for the child’s murder, he was in doubt. Then an old man said to him,’ God has forgiven you even the death of the child, but he leaves you in grief because that is good for your soul.’ (The Sayings of the Desert Fathers by Benedicta Ward, SLG, p. 36)

Abba Apollo murdered a woman and aborted her child. From that heinous crime he turned his life toward God and became a changed man. God turned the evil which Abba Apollo had done into something that caused him to become holy through remorse and forgiveness.

Both Alessandro Serenelli and Abba Apollo found redemption and forgiveness. May George Tiller and Scott Roeder also find redemption and forgiveness. Let us pray for both of them.

Forgiveness and the Eucharist

Forgiving others is very difficult for human beings. We are wounded through original sin, but we are made in the image and likeness of God, and God is merciful. St. Faustina has reminded us of divine mercy, and we are obligated to reflect that mercy to others.

Scripture is unequivocal about our need for mercy and the need for us to be merciful to others. The Gospel of Matthew is particularly good at this. "Then Peter came up and said to him, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you seven times but seventy times seven'" (Matthew 18:21-22). Jesus then tells us a parable to help us understand the kingdom of heaven. It is the story of the king who forgives a servant who is in debt to him. The king forgives a huge debt (10,000 talents). The servant then shakes down another servant who owes him a much smaller debt (100 denarii), showing him no mercy. The king learns of this, and then says to him: "'You wicked servant! I forgave you all the debt because you besought me; and should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?" The servant is sent to prison "till he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart" (Matthew 18:23-35). I have long found this passage very powerful. Because of the emphasis on forgiveness and the de-emphasis on money in this parable, I put a dollar bill at this passage in Bibles placed in hotel rooms I stay in. That's one way I try to quietly evangelize.

Earlier in the Gospel of Matthew we are told the connection directly between worship and forgiveness. "So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Make friends quickly with your accuser, while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison; truly, I say to you, you will never get out till you have paid the last penny" (Matthew 5:23-26).

Before we approach the altar to receive our Lord in the Eucharist, we say the prayer He taught us: the Our Father. We say: "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us." If we do not forgive others, we are asking God to not forgive us.

How serious are we about that prayer? Are we as serious as Assunta Goretti, mother of St. Maria Goretti? In her excellent book, Real Saints, Real Women: Friends for your Spiritual Journey, Gina Loehr highlights the power of forgiveness in the story of the saint. Maria Goretti was only twelve years old when Alessandro Serenelli attempted to rape her. When she resisted, he stabbed her fourteen times. Maria lingered for a time afterwards; her mother, Assunta, was in the hospital with her until she died. As Loehr notes, Maria "declared that she had forgiven Alessandro and prayed that God would allow him to be with her in paradise. This perfect act of charity would inspire many others to forgive Alessandro as well. Assunta herself found courage to forgive the murderer because Maria had forgiven him first" (p. 66).

We evangelize by example.

This saint's forgiving heart changed Alessandro too. After eight years in prison, a glowing and angelic Maria appeared to him in a dream, offering forgiveness. From that time on Alessandro was repentant and remorseful. He served the remaining eighteen years of his sentence devoted to prayer and the sacraments" (p. 66).

Before we give up on people who we think are beyond redemption, we should recall Alessandro. After getting out of prison, he spent the rest of his life at a Capuchin monastery as a layman.

What truly impressed me about Assunta's story is this. She not only forgave Alessandro in her heart for killing her little girl, but she shared a heavenly meal with him:

On Christmas Eve of 1937, he came to seek forgiveness and to make what reparation he could. At midnight Mass he knelt beside Assunta as they both received Jesus in the Eucharist" (p. 67).

I do not know if I could find the courage to forgive someone for murdering my daughter, and then go to mass with that person. But that is what Jesus calls us to do, for that is what He did. "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34).