Maria Elena Marsico (ANSA) – ROME, JUNE 22 – The fact that the word abortion was not included in the final document of the G7, for the Manzoni-Della Corte family, “is a very good thing”. Today wife and husband are in the square in Rome at the ‘Choose life’ demonstration promoted by Pro Vita&Famiglia to testify to their life choice with 5 of their 11 children. The family left Modena by car and will return home this evening. Daniela, a 49-year-old nurse, and Lucio, 54, a foreign sales employee for a tile machinery company, try to keep the children close but the little ones, aged 2 to 12, are too busy fetching some balloons. “In total we have twelve children, one of whom, the penultimate, is in heaven,” says the mother. The older ones are waiting for them at home. Gianluca is 24 years old and a seminarian. “We are part of the Neocatechumenal community” Daniela specifies. Married for 25 years after a year of engagement, they had no intention of having a large family: “Then little by little they arrived. We have always been aware that they should arrive, and when they came we thanked them”, they say. It has never been difficult for them to take care of the kids, they say, thanks also to the help of Daniela’s mother, the babysitters and the Neocatechumenal community. Even the economic aspect “has never been a limit because – underlines Daniela – we have always relied on providence and in fact we have never had problems”. And she remembers the holidays she took: this year in Calabria, last year in Puglia. If before they traveled “with a 9-seater Scudo, now that four children are adults we have two 7 and 5-seater cars”. For Daniela, the current society has “a slightly selfish way of looking at life. You are too focused on yourself and your desires.” And to women who don’t feel like giving birth to a child for economic or work reasons, Daniela advises from her experience: “If you wait for the right moment, then you will never have children.”
