In a message dated 10/23/2003 9:55:08 PM Central Daylight Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: > >Miracles for Canonization of Saints: >The Catholic Church discerns in the matter of miraculous healings. >
I am going to respond to the above post in two parts. I apologize for the length of my response. It is good that the conditions for declaring a miracle have been stated clearly in the above post. It gives us an opportunity to examine whether any of these conditions were met in the case of Monica Besra (MB) miracle. > >1.The disease should be well documented in its onset and after the >cure. > In the MB case the disease was tuberculosis, a medically curable disease. > >2.The cure should be without any medication/surgery. Or, at least, >in spite of surgery/medication, the prognosis should be negative. > MB was on effective medication according to the doctor, Dr. Ranjan Mustafi who examined her and put her on anti-TB treatment. The prognosis for anybody with tuberculosis on modern medical treatment is excellent. Here is what Dr. Mustafi said: "She had a medical disease which was cured by medical science, not by any miracle" Here is an excerpt from a news report: [Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, a doctor who said he had treated Besra, said in a telephone interview Sunday that medicines he prescribed had eliminated the tumor. He also said it was a cyst caused by tuberculosis, not a cancerous tumor. The Vatican investigative team that traveled to India and certified Besra's account, he added, never made contact with him. "It was not a miracle," he said. "She took medicines for nine months to one year."] > >3. Cure should be instantaneous, sudden or at least extraordinary >and medically inexplicable. > Only the patient and the nuns say that there was a sudden, overnight disappearance of the mass in the MB case. No doctor saw MB immediately before and immediately after the so-called "miracle cure" to verify whether their uninformed, subjective and sympathetic impressions were right. Indeed, MB's husband flatly denied that MB was cured overnight. Here is what he said at the time: "This miracle is a hoax. It is much ado about nothing. My wife was cured by the doctors and not any miracle. . . . My wife did feel less pain one night when they [the nuns] used the locket, but her pain has been coming and going. Then she went to see the doctors and they cured her." The ultimate cure itself in this case, is not at all extraordinary or inexplicable. > >4. Cure should be complete, total. > The cure was complete and total after 9 – 12 months of proper medical treatment, according to her doctor. > >5. Cure should be lasting, permanent (a minimum of three or four >years). > Tuberculosis can be permanently cured with treatment. > >6. Cure should not be medically explainable (such as a spontaneous >remission). > MB's cure is medically explainable. Here is what Dr. Mustafi, her doctor said: "This miracle claim is absolute nonsense and should be condemned by everyone. She had a medium-sized tumour in her lower abdomen caused by tuberculosis. The drugs she was given eventually reduced the cystic mass and it disappeared after a year's treatment." > >It should be objectively proved, by tests, X-rays, Ultrasound, MRI, >or biopsies). > This "miracle cure" was not objectively proved by any test done immediately before and immediately after its purported occurrence. An ultrasound was done 1 month before and 8 months after the occurrence. The latter fact is especially telling. Why would you wait 8 months to objectively document a cure if you are so sure that it happened miraculously overnight? > >The Church is too careful in this matter. > Apparently not careful enough, as we can see above. Too eager is more like it. Cheers, Santosh ########################################################################## # Send submissions for Goanet to [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # PLEASE remember to stay on-topic (related to Goa), and avoid top-posts # # More details on Goanet at http://joingoanet.shorturl.com/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
