![]() My parents mentioned God only when imparting a guilt trip. But we were more of what you’d call a “cultural” Catholic family-we attended Mass infrequently, did not say grace before meals, did not celebrate any feast days, and did not pray together. Margaret Mary Church and made my First Communion. It was in Moon Township, just outside of Pittsburgh, that I attended CCD classes with the nuns at St. Twenty-two months later, she delivered another girl, and my sister Anne was added to our family. On June 1, 1966, in Providence, Rhode Island, my mother, age 40, delivered me. On his knees my father climbed, begging God to let his child survive. Pious belief holds that if you climb these twenty-eight steps on your knees and pray for your intention, it will be granted. ![]() In one of the shrine’s original buildings, a set of stairs was built in 1891 as a monument to the Scala Santa, the staircase Jesus ascended to Pilate’s Praetorium. When my father got word of what had happened, he was encouraged to make a pilgrimage to a local shrine, St. ![]() But upon examining her, the doctor was surprised to detect a second heartbeat: there had been twins, and my mother still carried a baby within her womb. ![]() That December, while my father was on a business trip to Quebec, Canada, my mother miscarried another son. ![]()
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