On June 21, 2024, the Diocese of Rome will officially close the diocesan phase of the cause of beatification of Servant of God, Chiara Corbella Petrillo, an Italian mother who died in 2012 after postponing cancer treatment in order to give birth to her son.
Chiara is a young mother from Rome who passed away in 2012 at age 28, after postponing cancer treatment in order to give birth to her son, Francesco. She would now be 40 years old.
Before the birth of Francesco, she and her husband, Enrico Petrillo, had lost two children, in 2009 and 2010, as both of those babies were found during her pregnancies to have fatal conditions. Despite the difficulties, she carried both pregnancies to term, and she and Enrico baptized the children, who both lived less than an hour.
“Chiara’s witness is eternal, it is the witness of a daughter who stays loved,” Enrico Petrillo, Chiara’s husband, told Aleteia on May 8, 2024, at the inauguration ceremony of a house in her name dedicated to helping women with difficult pregnancies. “This was Chiara’s secret, to know that she was loved and so to be able to welcome others, which is in the end the Lord’s secret.”
After her death, her touching witness quickly spread across Rome and the world, echoing the story of Italian saint, Gianna Berretta Molla, who also refused cancer treatment in order to give birth to her daughter.
Two books have already been written about Chiara’s story and translated into multiple languages.
The opening of the cause in 2018
In 2018, after receiving Vatican approval, the Diocese of Rome officially opened a cause of beatification into Chiara Corbella’s life, recognizing the “fame of holiness” that had spread around her and her story.
On September 21, 2018, what would have been her and her husband’s 10th wedding anniversary, the Diocese of Rome formally opened the diocesan phase of the cause, which will now come to a close on this coming June 21, six years later.
“Her oblation remains as a beacon of light, of hope, a testimony of faith in God, the author of life, an example of love greater than fear and death,” said a document of the Diocese of Rome from June 2, 2018.
Th diocesan phase of a beatification cause is dedicated to gathering all the documents, testimonies, and other materials on the life to be evaluated.
After it is closed these extensive files are sent to the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints to be assessed further.
In Chiara's case, the Dicastery will then evaluate if she lived a life “heroic in virtue” and, if the Pope approves, she can be recognized as venerable. Then if one miracle is attributed to her intercession she can be considered blessed, if a second one is also recognized she can become a canonized saint.
