{"id":2638,"date":"2008-10-31T09:45:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-31T09:45:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html"},"modified":"2008-10-31T09:45:00","modified_gmt":"2008-10-31T09:45:00","slug":"let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html","title":{"rendered":"Let there be life: “For God, there is no percentage”"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>Here comes a beautiful reminder that you can never anticipate what God will do. It’s a poignant and inspiring story of faith, hope and life<\/i>, from Florida Catholic<\/a>: <\/p>\n

Friends and colleagues said \u201cmaybe you should interrupt the pregnancy\u201d when Daniele Cardoso told them the devastating news: Her first-trimester tests indicated her unborn baby boy had a serious brain and skull defect, and had little chance of making it into the world.<\/p>\n

But Cardoso remained hopeful.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor God, there is no percentage,\u201d Cardoso, a parishioner of St. Jude in Boca Raton, told the Florida Catholic, shaking her head with a defiant twinkle lighting her blue eyes.<\/p>\n

Jo\u00e3o Pedro Cardoso, the first child of Daniele and Murilo Cardoso, was born June 13, 2003. Three surgeries in his first year of life corrected the brain problem, but Jo\u00e3o Pedro still has cerebral palsy. The curly haired, 5-year-old beat tremendous odds \u201cwith the help of prayer,\u201d according to his mom, but life has not been easy for the tot or his parents.<\/p>\n

\u201cI talk with my heart now about my feelings then,\u201d Murilo Cardoso explained. \u201cWe were praying \u2013 he is going to turn around, going to improve and he is going to have a better situation in the future. I prayed that he would walk, talk, play soccer \u2013 you know, have a normal life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jo\u00e3o Pedro took some of his first steps during a Mass celebration Sept. 7, the Sunday before the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was in tears,\u201d said parishioner Elena Moro, who witnessed the child struggling to walk.<\/p>\n

Moro is a member of St. Joan of Arc Columbiettes Auxiliary 13051, a group of Catholic women from various parishes dedicated to working with the Knights of Columbus in various efforts.<\/p>\n

The women heard about the Cardoso family and put together fundraising events this year resulting in \u201ca total of $4,500,\u201d according to Moro.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes me feel great,\u201d said Moro. \u201cWhatever money we made for the family was used for his therapy. You can see the results of our fundraisers,\u201d she explained about seeing the child reaching great strides.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Read the rest at the link<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Photo: The Cardoso family poses for a photograph with Carmelite Father Emiel Abalahim of St. Jude Parish. From left, 10\u2013month\u2013old Beatrice sits on the lap of Father Abalahim, Murilo Cardoso holds his 5\u2013year\u2013old son, Jo\u00e3o Pedro, Catharina, 3, Thiago, 10\u2013months and Daniele Cardoso. Photo by Nancy Flanigan, Florida Catholic<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here comes a beautiful reminder that you can never anticipate what God will do. It’s a poignant and inspiring story of faith, hope and life, from Florida Catholic: Friends and colleagues said \u201cmaybe you should interrupt the pregnancy\u201d when Daniele Cardoso told them the devastating news: Her first-trimester tests indicated her unborn baby boy had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":204,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration","category-the-people-in-the-pews"],"yoast_head":"\nLet there be life: "For God, there is no percentage" - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Let there be life: "For God, there is no percentage" - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Here comes a beautiful reminder that you can never anticipate what God will do. It’s a poignant and inspiring story of faith, hope and life, from Florida Catholic: Friends and colleagues said \u201cmaybe you should interrupt the pregnancy\u201d when Daniele Cardoso told them the devastating news: Her first-trimester tests indicated her unborn baby boy had…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2008-10-31T09:45:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SQsMsxvcDqI\/AAAAAAAADPk\/71yAyfO82eY\/s400\/20080926_plb_cardoso_1.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Deacon Greg Kandra\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Let there be life: \"For God, there is no percentage\" - The Deacon's Bench","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Let there be life: \"For God, there is no percentage\" - The Deacon's Bench","og_description":"Here comes a beautiful reminder that you can never anticipate what God will do. It’s a poignant and inspiring story of faith, hope and life, from Florida Catholic: Friends and colleagues said \u201cmaybe you should interrupt the pregnancy\u201d when Daniele Cardoso told them the devastating news: Her first-trimester tests indicated her unborn baby boy had…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html","og_site_name":"The Deacon's Bench","article_published_time":"2008-10-31T09:45:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SQsMsxvcDqI\/AAAAAAAADPk\/71yAyfO82eY\/s400\/20080926_plb_cardoso_1.jpg"}],"author":"Deacon Greg Kandra","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html","name":"Let there be life: \"For God, there is no percentage\" - The Deacon's Bench","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SQsMsxvcDqI\/AAAAAAAADPk\/71yAyfO82eY\/s400\/20080926_plb_cardoso_1.jpg","datePublished":"2008-10-31T09:45:00+00:00","dateModified":"2008-10-31T09:45:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/5a7b3c6e9d155e382842aa310ff9b1ee"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SQsMsxvcDqI\/AAAAAAAADPk\/71yAyfO82eY\/s400\/20080926_plb_cardoso_1.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/1.bp.blogspot.com\/_0DySLTT4PWo\/SQsMsxvcDqI\/AAAAAAAADPk\/71yAyfO82eY\/s400\/20080926_plb_cardoso_1.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2008\/10\/let-there-be-life-for-god-there-is-no-percentage.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Let there be life: “For God, there is no percentage”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/","name":"The Deacon's Bench","description":"Where a Roman Catholic Deacon Ponders the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/5a7b3c6e9d155e382842aa310ff9b1ee","name":"Deacon Greg Kandra","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/114\/1144d939be636f641ea021e1d347f9fdx96.jpg","caption":"Deacon Greg Kandra"},"description":"A Roman Catholic deacon serving the Diocese of Brooklyn, New York, Greg Kandra is News Director for the diocese's cable channel, NET (New Evangelization Television.) Prior to that, Deacon Greg worked for 26 years as a writer and producer for CBS News, where he contributed to \"The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric,\" \"60 Minutes II,\" \"48 Hours,\" (Emmy Award, Writers Guild of America Award) and \"Sunday Morning.\" He was co-writer for the acclaimed documentary \"9\/11,\" hosted by Robert DeNiro. (Emmy Award, Christopher Award, Peabody Award, Writers Guild of America Award.) His radio essays were featured in the bestselling book \"Deadlines and Datelines\" by Dan Rather. He's also a two-time winner of the Catholic Press Association Award. Other places you may find him: AMERICA, U.S. CATHOLIC, CATHOLIC DIGEST, REALITY (Redemptorist Communications) and THE BROOKLYN TABLET. He also contributes homiletic reflections to the parish resource CONNECT!, published by Liturgical Publications. In November 2009, he began serving a three-year term as a consultant to the Communications Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). Deacon Greg grew up in Maryland (Go Terps!) but he and his wife today live in the beautiful borough of Queens, New York. You can contact Deacon Greg at dcngreg@gmail.com.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/author\/gkandra"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/204"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2638\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}