Diagnosing a miracle -- a long process
By Uwe Siemon-Netto
UPI Religion Correspondent
From the Life & Mind Desk
Published 4/9/2002 4:33 PM
PARIS, April 9 (UPI) -- The pilgrimage season in Lourdes, at the
foothills of the French Pyrenees, is in full swing again since Easter,
keeping a bearded
man nicknamed "Docteur Miracle" on the lookout for a new sign from God.
Of course, Patrick Theillier, head of the Medical Bureau of Our Lady of
Lourdes,
would never describe his job that way. "All we can do is give a
negative
assessment -- that there is no scientific explanation for the sudden
cure
of a grave illness," he told United Press International.
However, reaching this conclusion involves a lengthy investigation at
different
levels that can take decades. "And even then there is no guarantee that
a
cure will be termed a miracle. It's always up to the pilgrim's bishop
to
make that decision," said Theillier, a specialist in gastroenterology.
Consider this: Some 6 million pilgrims attend this marvelous gathering
of
the world's Catholic faithful. In the 154 years since the Virgin Mary
was
reported to have appeared to Bernadette Soubirous, a peasant girl, only
66
of some 7,000 cases of healing were recognized as "signs from God."
"There probably should have been more," Theillier allowed. "But many
previously
ill pilgrims don't even report the disappearance of their sickness. And
if
you are a Protestant, you won't have a Catholic bishop to concede that
a
miracle has happened to you."
To make his point, Theillier gave UPI an e-mail from Sandra Charles, an
Australian
Protestant woman, who could not have children.
"My doctor in Australia had advised me to have IVF (in-vitro
fertilization) and ... I declined ... So my husband and I decided it
was God's way and accepted
the fact that I would not bear him children."
But Sandra Charles had seen the 1943 Hollywood movie, "The Song of
Bernadette,"
which was based on a moving book on Lourdes by the German Jewish writer
Franz
Werfel.
So when she and her husband visited France, they went to Lourdes. She
drank
from the spring water that according to Bernadette Soubirous, the
Virgin
Mary was reported to have commanded her and future pilgrims to drink.
"When we arrived home we I discovered I was pregnant," wrote Sandra
Charles.
"My family joked it must have been the wine. My doctors said it was
medically
impossible."
But the fact is Sandra Charles gave birth to a baby girl and later to a
boy.
Was it a miracle? Who is to say in the absence of a diocesan bishop?
Nevertheless, she believes, "I was blessed by Our Lady while I was
there
in Lourdes," and Patrick Theillier, the sanctuary doctor, rejoiced with
her,
though he will never be able to certify the absence of a scientific
explanation.
He was not consulted.
He will not get involved easily, he insisted. Before he does, the
patient must meet a host of conditions. "He or she must be gravely ill,
suffering from a known disease that was diagnosed by medical
professionals," Theillier pointed out.
"The illness must be neither not psychological nor even psychosomatic,
but
strictly physiological and unresponsive to treatment. The cure is to
have
been instant and complete. We will not consider cases of remission or
of
a repression of the disease."
Who is "we?" Well, to begin with, Theillier and any medical doctor
present
at Lourdes at any given time. "Together, these doctors come from all
corners
of the world make up the Medical Bureau. Many are Protestants, Jews,
Muslims
or even agnostics, who accompany pilgrims for strictly humanitarian
reasons."
These physicians examine case histories, pathologies, biopsies, x-rays,
MRIs
and all other forms of scientific evidence in the presence of the
rector
of the Lourdes sanctuary and the pilgrim's pastor.
Once they have confirmed a cure, the pilgrim must meet with the Medical
Bureau
repeatedly over a period of three years. "Then the case will be
referred
to the Lourdes International Medical Committee, which has 20 permanent
members
and includes a further 10,000 physicians from 75 countries -- again,
Catholics,
Protestants, Jews, agnostics, even atheist," Theillier said.
The International Committee takes its time. Ten to 15 years can go by
before
it decides that someone's cure defies medical explanation.
"Only then will we refer the case to the patient's bishop. If he wishes
to
act upon it, he will assemble a Diocesan Canonical Commission made up
of
canons, priests, theologians, and physicians. If they agree, the bishop
will
be able to proclaim the healing a 'sign from God.'"
This happened in 2001, when Bishop Jean-Pierre Dagens of
Angoulême in
southwestern France, who enjoys the reputation of being one of his
church's most powerful minds, recognized a local nurse's sudden and
medically inexplicable restoration to health as authentic.
Nurse Jean-Pierre Bély, now 65, was in the final stages of
multiple sclerosis. In 1987, he went to Lourdes, where he received the
Sacrament of
the Sick during Mass. "All of a sudden," his diocese later reported,
"he
was overcome by a powerful sense of interior liberation and peace."
The next day, Bély was lying in the sanctuary's sick room.
Suddenly, he experienced a sense of cold. It grew stronger and stronger
and felt quite
painful, he told his clerical and medical examiners.
But then he began to feel intensely warm. He sat at the edge of his bed
and
could move his arms. The next night, he awoke from a deep sleep and
discovered
he could walk for the first time since 1984.
Raj Persaud, senior lecturer at the Institute of Psychiatry in London,
just
happened to be in Lourdes when this recognition of Bély's cure
was
announced.
The British Broadcasting Corporation had sent Persaud to Lourdes "to
make
an investigation of whether miracles really happen," he later told the
BBC's
listeners.
He went on, "I found much to my surprise ... that even hard-headed
scientists
can still be convinced in the 21st century that miracles, which violate
the
known laws of nature, still happen."
In Bély's case, Persaud discovered a strange analogy between the
reactions
of those who are restored to health and those who make it through wars
and
holocausts -- they later suffer from survivor guilt.
Persaud said of Bély, "This man, although largely serene, seemed
a
little troubled now by the ultimate question, which was, given that
many go
to Lourdes and don't receive the blessing of a cure, why was he singled
out
for a miracle?
"It seems that even those who believe in miracle cures or have directly
experienced
them there remains this last disquieting question -- why me?"
To hear Patrick Theillier, this disquieting question will be asked over
and
over again in decades to come: Last year, 35 Lourdes pilgrims declared
they
were miraculously healed.
"Of those, we accepted 10 cases for further examinations," Theillier
revealed,
"and a decade or more from now, three could go down as signs from God."
Copyright © 2002 United Press International
Code: ZE04021108
Date: 2004-02-11
How Lourdes Cures Are Recognized as Miraculous
Doctors Scrutinize Each Case
LOURDES, France, FEB. 11, 2004 (Zenit.org).-
Each year more than 6 million pilgrims visit the Marian shrine at the
town of Lourdes, renowned for its miracle cures. But who decides when a
cure is a miracle?
The Catholic Church has officially recognized 67 miracles and some
7,000 inexplicable cures since the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared in
Lourdes in February 1858, as attested in the book "The Doctor in the
Face of Miracles" ("Il medico di fronte ai miracoli"), written by the
Italian Doctors Association.
Dr. Patrick Thiellier, director of the medical office established at
the shrine to scientifically examine alleged cases of healing,
collaborated in the book.
In 1905, Pope Pius X asked that all cases of alleged miracles or cures
recorded in Lourdes be analyzed scientifically.
At the shrine's French-language Web page (www.lourdes-france.com)
the
medical office explains that its objective is to be able to declare a
cure "certain, definitive and medically inexplicable."
To do so, it applies four criteria:
-- "the fact and the diagnosis of the illness is first of all
established and correctly diagnosed";
-- "the prognosis must be permanent or terminal in the short term";
-- "the cure is immediate, without convalescence, complete and
lasting";
-- "the prescribed treatment could not be attributed to the cause of
this cure or be an aid to it."
The sick who come to Lourdes with a pilgrimage group are accompanied by
a doctor who is furnished with a medical file describing their present
condition.
This file forms the basis from which to work when a pilgrim declares
that he has been cured. The file, and the pilgrim who claims to have
been cured, are presented to the medical office. A doctor based there
will then gather the members of the medical profession present in
Lourdes on that day who wish to participate in the examination.
No definite conclusion is given at the end of this examination. The
person who claims to have been cured will be invited to meet the
medical commission the following year and possibly for many subsequent
years.
Finally, after many successful examinations, the file of the cure will
be sent, if three-quarters of the doctors present so wish, to the
Lourdes International Medical Committee.
This second level of enquiry has existed since 1947. At first it was
the Lourdes National Medical Committee; in 1954 it took on the
"International" name.
The committee comprises 30 specialists, surgeons and professors or
heads of department, from various countries, who meet once a year. The
current president is professor Jean-Louis Armand-Laroche.
It allows an assessment to continue over several years in order to
observe the development of the patient.
If the International Medical Committee gives a favorable opinion, the
file is then sent to the competent Church authorities.
When the file is sent to the bishop of the place where the cured person
lives, the case is already recognized as extraordinary by science and
medically inexplicable.
It remains for the Church, through the intermediary of the bishop, to
make an announcement on the miraculous character of the cure.
To do this, the bishop gathers together a diocesan commission made up
of priests, canonists and theologians. The rules that guide the
procedures of this commission are those defined in 1734 by the future
Pope Benedict XIV in his treatise "Concerning the Beatification and
Canonization of Servants of God" (Book IV, Part I, Chapter VIII No. 2).
In sum, the rules demand that there must not be found in the cure any
valid explanation, medical or scientific, natural or usual. This is the
case for the cures that have taken place at Lourdes. Having established
this, it remains for the diocesan commission to determine that the cure
comes from God.
Furnished with conclusions reached by the commission, it is up to the
bishop to make a definitive pronouncement and to suggest to his diocese
and to the world that this cure is seen as a "sign from God."
***************
Now, for a little more than we really "know".
Lourdes prophecy...
This prophecy is from a tabloid but there is supposed
to
be some fairly reliable sources vouching for its
authenticity. Lourdes
Prophecy
click
here
