John Burnett's report on NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday about a nationwide tour centered around a Catholic saint certainly stands out, as the liberal radio network has a long record of hostility to Christianity in general and, specifically, Catholicism. Burnett spotlighted how the remains of "Saint Maria Goretti, patron saint of purity and mercy, drew tens of thousands of the faithful" across the United States. The correspondent also zeroed in on how the widow of an Oklahoma politician, who was murdered by their mentally-ill son, visited the relics for inspiration, as the saint herself forgave her killer.
Burnett detailed how St. Maria Goretti "represents...forgiveness. The Italian peasant girl was murdered when she was 11. Her assailant — a 19-year-old neighbor named Alessandro Serenelli — had tried to rape her. She fought back. He stabbed her 14 times with a rusty file. The year was 1902. According to a film playing inside the church, she lived until the following day." He played a sound bite from the film, which revealed that "before she died, she said these words: 'I forgive Alessandro Serenelli.'"
The NPR journalist featured Cathy Costello during the second half of his report. Costello's husband, Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Mark Costello, was murdered on August 23, 2015, by his adult son, Christian. Burnett noted that "Cathy Costello has been wrestling with her grief over losing her husband of 33 years, and her feelings toward her son, who sits in the county jail charged with first-degree homicide." He also highlighted that "Costello gave this interview in her home north of Oklahoma City on the morning that her church invited visitors in to venerate the saint. She went to the church with her other children that evening and stayed until midnight, which would have been Mark's birthday."
Burnett's report stands in stark contrast to his network's promotion of Irish author Colm Toibin's anti-Catholic fable during a November 2012 segment on Morning Edition. In July 2014, NPR also boosted the plight of a homosexual teacher who was fired from his job at a Catholic school in Georgia.
The full transcript of Mark Burnett's report from the November 22, 2015 edition of NPR Weekend Edition Sunday:
RACHEL MARTIN : The body of a saint — known in the Catholic Church as a relic — flew home to Italy after its first cross-country U.S. tour. Saint Maria Goretti, patron saint of purity and mercy, drew tens of thousands of the faithful.
NPR's John Burnett caught up with the tour in Oklahoma, and he met one woman searching for forgiveness.
JOHN BURNETT: This is the first time the entire skeleton of a canonized saint has come to America.
FATHER CARLOS MARTINS: For the entire body of a saint to go on the road is something that only the Roman pontiff can authorize.
BURNETT: That's Father Carlos Martins, a noted curator of relics for the Catholic Church. He put together the U.S. tour of Saint Maria Goretti. He rode in the gleaming white tractor-trailer containing her remains, as it lumbered across the heartland. Her bones are encased in a wax statue dressed in white, lying in a glass casket. People stand in line, then kneel before their reliquary, and hold prayer cards and rosaries against the glass.
In Oklahoma City, the saint was displayed in Christ the King Catholic Church, whose pastor is Father Rick Stansberry — who wears a Roman collar and ostrich cowboy boots.
FATHER RICHARD STANSBERRY, CHRIST THE KING CATHOLIC CHURCH: When I first thought about it, I must admit I thought — well, that's a little bizarre — you know, worshiping a body part. But then, the more I read about it, I realized we're not really worshiping the body part. We are venerating what that saint represents.
BURNETT: What Maria Goretti represents is forgiveness. The Italian peasant girl was murdered when she was 11. Her assailant — a 19-year-old neighbor named Alessandro Serenelli — had tried to rape her. She fought back. He stabbed her 14 times with a rusty file. The year was 1902. According to a film playing inside the church, she lived until the following day.
UNIDENTIFIED MAN (from Catholic documentary on St. Maria Goretti): But before she died, she said these words: 'I forgive Alessandro Serenelli.'
BURNETT: This is why Cathy Costello has sought out Maria Goretti. Costello is a well-coiffed woman in her 50s — exuberantly friendly and deeply Catholic. She's the recent widow of Oklahoma Labor Commissioner Mark Costello. On August 23, the commissioner was stabbed to death 17 times with a steak knife inside an ice cream parlor. Cathy Costello witnessed the attack, and held her dying husband.
CATHY COSTELLO: I began to speak in his left ear, and I prayed the 'Hail Mary' — 'Pray for us now and at the hour of our death.' I asked God to forgive him of his sins; and I told him I loved him; and he died in my arms. And it's an ugly death to see someone bleed out.
BURNETT: It's uglier still that the person arrested for the murder is her 26-year-old son, Christian Costello. She says he has severe mental illness. He had stopped taking his medication, and he'd been having paranoid fantasies that his father was surveilling him.
Cathy Costello has been wrestling with her grief over losing her husband of 33 years, and her feelings toward her son, who sits in the county jail charged with first-degree homicide.
COSTELLO: Why? Why did you kill the one person that loved you more than anyone else in the world? Why did you hurt our family like this? And I know it's not logical, because he has mental illness. But that's — if I'm going to be honest with you, that's the internal struggle.
BURNETT: Costello gave this interview in her home north of Oklahoma City on the morning that her church invited visitors in to venerate the saint. She went to the church with her other children that evening and stayed until midnight, which would have been Mark's birthday.
COSTELLO: My family will be there with Maria Goretti on my husband's 60th birthday, and I will ask her to help me forgive my son, and to have some understanding about mental health.
BURNETT: Earlier this week, the mortal remains of Saint Maria Goretti were returned to her crypt in Nettuno, Italy. Back in Oklahoma City, Cathy Costello is throwing her support behind legislation that would strengthen laws to get people with severe mental illness off the streets. John Burnett, NPR News, Oklahoma City.
