Giving thanks to God for her life

DOVER  In 1939, God gave Merla Ricafranca the miracle of miracles: being brought back to life after being declared stillborn in her mother’s womb by doctors in her native Philippines.

While still a child, Ricafranca, a longtime parishioner of Sacred Heart/Our Lady Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church here, decided to start living out a life of thanks to God for the gift of life through her own gift of tangible, faithful social action. First, she visited local prisoners in the Philippines and helped to provide for their physical well-being. Decades later, after having moved to the U.S., she expanded on that original vision of service by founding the Mary Queen of All Nations Missionary Alliance in 1984. It’s a major part of a compelling story that Father Zbigniew Tyburski, a retired diocesan priest, tells in his new book about her, “From Death to Life: Fascinating Life Story of Woman Who Was Stillborn.”

Since the founding of the Missionary Alliance, Ricafranca, an enthusiastic team of volunteers, and its benefactors have been stretching God’s caring hands to reach around the world by supporting underprivileged people around the world both materially and spiritually. They have packed an endless number of packages for shipment overseas — from the basement from her Dover home. In the book, Father Tyburski shows how her faithful Catholic upbringing, including devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary and gratitude to God, intensified her passion to answer his call to minister to the poor. A simple mission —“Do everything you can to go to heaven so you can be with him forever” — drives her efforts, the priest said.

“[Merla] is convinced that each human being has dignity and value and therefore should be treated equally. Her missionary activities provide considerable inspiration to many priests as well as lay people,” writes Father Tyburski, who interviewed Ricafranca for the 83-page, pocket-sized book, published last month by Point Publications Inc. in Stevens Point, Wis. “Merla is persuaded, as we all are, that by demonstrating our service and time to others with love and with our honest work, we can obtain holiness. The outcome of it — we can dwell in the presence of God eternally,” the priest writes.

The Missionary Alliance was founded in 1984, during a meeting that drew only four volunteers, who wanted to help the poor in the Philippines and India. In six months, it had helped the poorest of the poor in eight countries. Over the past three decades, the non-profit organization has helped the poor in more than 40 countries on four continents: Africa, South America, Asia, and Europe, despite many obstacles, which the book details. In 2014, diocesan Catholic Charities bestowed on Ricafranca and the non-profit organization its Caritas Award for Convening at its annual gala, as reported previously by The Beacon.

Today, the Alliance supports the poor and needy in the world through established missionaries to help them stand on their feet through self-sufficiency projects and provide educational support to rise above poverty. That assistance includes funds for education of seminarians; help for the physically impaired, lepers, orphans, the terminally ill, and AIDS patients; support for parish ministries’ basic needs such as clothes, towels, and toiletries; help for equipment for people’s livelihoods such as farming and fishing; and distribution of religious materials and items. They also help victims of man-made or natural disasters, Father Tyburski writes.

“Merla wanted to evangelize the world about the Good News among those who never heard about Jesus Christ,” writes Father Tyburski, an adjunct professor at Seton Hall University in South Orange. He has written other books, such as “Polish Champions: Sketches in Human Dignity,” and articles on sociological, pastoral, and historical topics.

In a Sept. 24, 1992 column about missionary activities in The Beacon, the late Msgr. John Demkovich quotes Father Darius Makuja, secretary-general of the Apostles of Jesus, speaking about Ricafranca’s physical and spiritual strength. She visited missionary outposts around the world, even though she suffered from cerebral palsy, which has forced her to walk with a cane.

“She underwent sacrifice in difficult climates, rough roads, and long flights to see for herself what they are doing in sponsoring seminarians, church projects, and helping for the needy,” Father Makuja said.

In 1939, Ricafranca experienced a rebirth during her breech-birth delivery when an umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and forehead. The doctor determined that she died in her mother’s womb and wanted to break her arms and legs for an easier delivery. Her father said, “No.” Ricafranca was delivered unharmed but stillborn with no vital signs. Her family prayed while a chaplain performed an emergency baptism. Then, she sprang to life, Father Tyburski writes.

In gratitude, Ricafranca’s parents dedicated her to the Blessed Virgin Mary and brought her to daily Mass in the Philip­pines. Early on, she started ministering to prisoners in Manila where she lived. Later, she taught catechism and served a Manila presidium of the Legion of Mary for 13 years. In 1966, she came to the U.S. with three other exchange students to work in the medical field, including at St. Joseph University Medical Center in Paterson, and became a U.S. citizen. Little by little, she engaged in many missionary activities, such as helping poor seminarians and people around the world — all out of her own pocket, at first.

In the forward of the book, Father Brendan Murray, a retired diocesan priest and pastor emeritus of Sacred Heart Parish, writes that Ricafranca has received letters from bishops and the Pope and was awarded the Medal Pro Ecclesia et Pontifice for her efforts.

“I pray that as you read of how God has used her, you will be filled with joy, but mostly that you will be inspired to love God, to love Mary, and to expect that if you trust in them and choose to work for the Gospel in whatever way God calls you, you will find that God is never outdone in generosity,” the priest writes.

Father Tyburski has printed a small number of copies of “From Death to Life.” He plans to print additional copies, if demand warrants it.

[ Information: email Father Tyburski at [email protected] ]