By Fr. Miguel A. Bernad, sj

There are hundreds (perhaps thousands) of photograph of the beautiful and popular Princess Diana. Many of them bring out the beauty of her face. Not all of them are edifying, for it must be admitted that the Princess did not live a blameless life. She herself admitted having been unfaithful to her marriage vows. This, and the seemingly mad pursuit of pleasure (including the questionable relationships with the playboy who died with her) call into question the seriousness with which she took her essential roles as a wife and as a mother.

And yet, this seemingly pleasure-loving and apparently irresponsible woman was also involved with very serious concerns. Among other things, her crusade against landmines; her efforts to help find cure for AIDS; her concern for abandoned and suffering children.

The July-August issue of a mission magazine published by the Columban Fathers (Misyon, Vol. II, No. 4) has on the cover a picture of Diana which has moved me deeply. It must be the very best photograph of her. It shows her as a very different person from that projected by her other photographs.

The picture shows Diana clasping to her bosom a black child, a boy. Her right hand hugs the child to her breast. Her left hand holds up the child’s right hand. Her face is shown in profile: the eyes half closed, with a suggestion of tears, the lips in an incipient smile.

It is the picture of a mother clasping her child to her breast – even if this child is not hers and belongs to a different race. It is a picture of pure, unadulterated, unselfish, all-embracing love.

Diana did not live a saintly life, but this picture makes one think of what Our Lord said of the sinful woman who had washed his feet: “Much is forgiven her because she has loved much.”