An Active Year for Miracles

The following story is by Christie Hadley of the Cincinnati Catholic Examiner:

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Congregation for the Cause of Saints, and it has been an active one for miracles. Three of the possible miracles that are currently being investigated have been in the news recently, one right here in Cincinnati.

According to an Enquirer Article published on May 10, 2009, the Archdiocese of Cincinnati has begun its first-ever investigation into a possible miracle attributed to someone who is up for sainthood.

The miracle, which occurred in 1989, was the healing of Tim Siemers, the chairman of Franklin Savings. Siemers had a massive hemorrhage in his brain, caused by a ruptured aneurysm. Every medical therapy the doctors attempted failed. And yet, he made a full recovery and is alive today to talk about it. The person Siemers and his family credit with his healing is the founder of the Franciscan Sisters of the Poor, Sister Frances Schervier. She has a special connection to Cincinnati as it was the order’s first site in the United States.

But Cincinnati is not the only archdiocese investigating miracles. Just last week, a Vatican representative landed in Wichita, Kansas to investigate the healing of Chase Kear. A young man of 20, Kear fell while pole vaulting in October 2008 suffering a traumatic brain injury. Within an hour of his arrival at the hospital his family, parish and hundreds of others were praying to Fr. Emil Kapaun for his intersession. He has sense made a near complete recovery from a broken skull. Kapaun has a special connection with Wichita, growing up in Pilsen, Kansas and becoming ordained by the archdiocese of Wichita in 1940. He became an Army Chaplain and died as a prisoner of the Korean War in 1951.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is investigating the healing of 71-year-old Mary Ellen Heibel’s terminal cancer. In May of 2004, Heibel was told by Walter Reed Medical Center to “go home and die.” She was given six months to live with malignant tumors in her lungs, liver, stomach and chest. Not accepting a death sentence her friends and family began to pray to Fr. Francis Seelos for his help. Seelos was a pastor in Baltimore and Cumberland, Maryland in the mid-1800s and spent time at Heibel’s home parish, St. Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Annapolis. A month after starting the novena, a CT scan showed that she was tumor free. She has remained that way since 2005.

Being from a Protestant background, it was difficult for me to understand intercessions at first. This just wasn’t apart of my background, but I must say it has always fascinated me. So I looked into it a little bit more. Now I understand it to be a bit like networking. Especially in this economy, it is incredibly helpful if your resume is given to a potential employer by someone that employer already knows and respects. Intercession, to me, seems to work the same way. Your request is placed in front of God by someone He already knows and respects.

Through my research I discovered many Biblical passages that support the idea of intercession, including a powerful one from 1 Tim. 2:1–3 which states, “I urge then, first of all that petitions, prayers, intercessions and thanksgiving should be offered for everyone, for kings and others in authority, so that we may be able to live peaceful and quiet lives with all devotion and propriety. To do this is right, and acceptable to God our Savior.”

What a wonderful idea. When we’re in need we can ask not only our friends, family and parish to pray for us but we can also network a bit with the Saints. This can get our need seen by God with all the more oomph behind it.

God blesses us in so many ways. I’m just so grateful that we have miracles here in Cincinnati and elsewhere in the United States. It shows without question that God is with us and our prayers are answerd. Thanks be to God!

For more information: Sister Frances Schervier, Fr. Emil Kapaun, Fr. Francis Seelos, praying to Saints, sainthood process

Investigator for Vatican Finds Evidence of Miracle in Chase Kear's Survival

Investigator for Vatican finds enough to continue - Featured Story - Wichita Eagle

(Chase Kear's remarkabe recovery is being attributed to intercessory prayer made to Father Emil Kapaun. Father Kapaun is being considered for sainthood by the Vatican.)

The following excerpt is by Roy Wenzl of the Wichita Eagle:

The Vatican found enough evidence of a miracle in the survival of Chase Kear of Colwich that it intends to keep studying his survival, with an eye toward declaring it an official miracle, church officials say.

Declaring it a miracle would help determine whether Father Emil Kapaun of Pilsen will be canonized as a saint of the Catholic Church.

Andrea Ambrosi, a lawyer and investigator for the Vatican, visited family members and doctors for two Wichita-area families on Friday who believe the survival of their children during nearly lethal medical crises recently should qualify as miracles.

One of them involved Chase Kear, a 20-year-old Colwich athlete severely injured in October.

The Rev. John Hotze, judicial vicar for the Wichita diocese, is not allowed to say who or what families are being investigated for miracles. But he said there was one other "alleged miracle" in the Wichita area that Ambrosi studied during his time here.

With both families, Hotze said, Ambrosi met with the doctors involved and studied medical reports and X-rays.

"Afterward, the Vatican investigator said that in years of investigating miracles, he had never seen doctors who made such a compelling case for miracles occurring," Hotze said.

If the miracle is proven, it will significantly advance the chances that the church will declare Kapaun a saint, decades after he died a hero in a North Korean prison camp in 1951. The church requires miracles to elevate a person to sainthood.

Hotze has investigated Kapaun's proposed sainthood for eight years, which is only a fraction of the time the church has been considering whether to elevate Kapaun to sainthood.

American soldiers came out of prisoner-of-war camps in 1953 with incredible stories about Kapaun's heroism and faith. They said that in the fierce winter of 1950 and 1951, when 1,200 out of 3,000 American prisoners starved to death or died of illness in Camp 5 along the Yalu River, Kapaun kept hundreds of survivors alive by stealing food and by force of will.

Kapaun was assigned to the U.S. Army's Eighth Cavalry regiment, which was surrounded and overrun by the Chinese army in North Korea in October and November 1950. He stayed behind with the wounded when the Army retreated. He allowed his own capture, then risked death by preventing Chinese executions of wounded Americans too injured to walk.

To read complete story, please visit the following link: Chase Kear Miracle

Miracle Approved for Newman Beatification

Excerpt of article by Peter Jennings from Independent Catholic News (ICN):

The miracle necessary for the beatification of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman the best-known English churchman in Victorian England, has been approved by the Cardinals of the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints, writes Peter Jennings

Jack Sullivan, aged 70, who lives with his wife Carol in Marshfield, near Boston, Massachusetts, was cured of an extremely serious spinal disorder on 15 August 2001, the Solemnity of the Assumption, after his intense intercession to Cardinal Newman.

The Congregation is now working on the document including a résumé of the life of Cardinal Newman and the miraculous cure attributed to him of Jack Sullivan, a Permanent Deacon from the Archdiocese of Boston.

When completed, this will be taken by the Perfect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Archbishop Angelo Amato, to Pope Benedict XVI who alone has the authority to promulgate the decree.

The Pope, who is taking a personal interest in the Cause, was first introduced to the theology of Cardinal Newman as a young seminary student in Germany in January 1946.

Beatification come from beatus, a Latin word meaning happy, blessed, holy. Beatification is an act by which the Catholic Church, through an official decree by the Pope, permits public veneration under the title Blessed of a dead person whose life is marked by holiness and the heroic practice of the virtues.

This correspondent was able to give the joyful news of the miracle by telephone to Deacon Jack Sullivan at his home on 13 June. Asked for this initial impressions upon receiving the news of the favorable recommendation of the cardinals, he responded by email 24 hours later: "When I first learned of the favorable recommendation of the Cardinals and bishops comprising the congregation for the Causes of Saints, I felt a sense of awe and immense gratitude to God and Cardinal Newman.”

Deacon Sullivan emphasised: "If it wasn't for Cardinal Newman's intercession when experiencing extremely severe spinal problems, it would have been virtually impossible to complete my diaconate formation and be ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston. Nor would I have been able to continue in my chosen profession as a magistrate in our court system to support my family."

He continued: "My fervent desire to give all that I have in my parish ministry at both St Thecla's parish in Pembroke, Massachusetts, and my prison ministry at the House of Correction in Plymouth, Massachusetts, best expresses the intense appreciation I have for God's gift and Cardinal Newman, who directs my efforts."

"I have developed a very real relationship with Cardinal Newman in frequent prayer and I try to pass on what marvelous gifts I have received to those I meet."

"Secondly, when receiving the news, I felt a very deep sense of the reality of God's love for each one of us especially during times of immense difficulties and suffering."

Deacon Sullivan added: "I realise that indeed there is such a thing as the Communion of Saints and a place of perfect peace which God has prepared for each one of us. As the kindly light of truth guided the life of Newman amidst unspeakable challenges in his world, so too I feel the same sense of direction when reflecting on these awesome gifts by realising that God dispenses His favour especially on the lowly and those who are ordinary as beautifully described in our Lady’s praises in her Magnificat."

To read complete article, please visit the following link: Newman Beatification

Vatican to Investigate Chase Kear Miracle

Is it a miracle that Colwich man survived? Religion Wichita Eagle

Video By Travis Heying

The following excerpt is from a video interview of family members regarding Chase Kear's recovery:

Family and friends of Chase Kear called his recovery from a severe head injury a miracle last year. During his hospitalization, several people prayed to Fr. Emil Kapaun, a Kansas priest who died in a Korean P.O.W. camp. Kapaun is a candidate for Sainthood and now the Vatican is sending a representative to Kansas to investigate Chase's story. To view the inspirational story, please visit the following link: Chase Kear Miracle

Metuchen Roman Catholic Diocese investigates possible miracle - NJ.com

by Jeff Diamant/The Star-Ledger

The following excerpt is from the article which appeared on NJ.com:

METUCHEN -- The Roman Catholic Diocese of Metuchen is helping oversee a church investigation into whether a nun being considered for sainthood caused a miracle.

The case involves Mother Mary Angeline Teresa McCrory, who died in 1984 at age 91 and was foundress of the Carmelite Sisters For The Aged And Infirm.

A married couple in New Jersey whose unborn baby was diagnosed with a genetic disorder is claiming prayers to McCrory helped their child, who was born far healthier than expected, said Mother Mark Louis Randall, superior general of the Carmelite order, based in Germantown, N.Y.

She said another member of the order, who is related to the couple, had suggested they pray to McCrory.

Citing privacy reasons, church officials would not identify the family making the miracle claim, except to say the parents live within the boundaries of the Metuchen Diocese, which includes Middlesex, Hunterdon, Warren and Somerset counties. They also would not say when the child was born.

To be canonized, a person must be credited after death with interceding in two miracles. People credited with interceding with one are beatified and given the title "Blessed."

McCrory, born in Ireland in 1891, joined an order called the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1910. She later founded the Carmelite Sisters For The Aged And Infirm, in 1929, in New York. That order now has 198 sisters in seven states and Ireland.

To read complete story, please visit the following link: Mother Mary Angeline Teresa McCrory

Deacon Healed Through Cardinal Newman's Intercession - Catholic Online

Miraculous Healing Through Cardinal Newman's Intercession

The following excerpt is from an article written by Meghan Noe:

LONDON (UK Catholic Herald) - An American deacon has described in detail how he was cured from a severe spinal condition after praying to Cardinal John Henry Newman. John Sullivan, 70, of Marshfield, Massachusetts, described the healing to American television networks just days after it was reported that Vatican theological consultors had unanimously ruled it a miracle that could pave the way for the beatification of the Victorian convert.

The healing, which was earlier concluded to be inexplicable by medics, now awaits the approval of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Sainthood and Pope Benedict XVI before Cardinal Newman can be declared Blessed.

For additional information regarding the story, please visit Catholic Online at the following link: http://www.catholic.org/national/national_story.php?id=33558

Wheelchair-boy 'miraculously walks again' at memorial visit to tomb of Pope John Paul II | Mail Online

The following excerpt is reprinted from Mail Online of a miracle being reported as connected to Pope John Paul II:

A child crippled by a kidney tumour was able to walk again after praying at the tomb of Pope John Paul II on the eve of the fourth anniversary of the late pontiff's death, it was claimed last night.

The nine-year-old Polish boy was brought to St Peter's Basilica on a pilgrimage to the grave of the Polish pope who died on April 2, 2005.

Last night Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, the former private secretary of Pope John Paul, said that after praying at the tomb in the crypt of the Rome basilica he 'suddenly' started walking again.

Please visit the following link for the complete story: Wheelchair-boy Miraculously Walks Again

'Miracle' Recovery of Man from Gunshot Wound Reported by ABC News

A Rosary blessed by Pope John Paul II is being attributed to the miraculous recovery of Jory Aebly from a gunshot wound to the head.

Shortly after the shooting of February 21, 2009, hospital chaplain, Father Art Snedeker, gave Jory Aebly the rosary. In a press conference, Father Snedeker said "The first night that Jory arrived and I performed the sacrament of the sick, I also asked asked Pope John Paul to pray for Jory and to protect him." Through intercessory prayer, it is believed that Pope John Paul II was helpful in Jory's recovery. Jory also gives credit to family members and everyone that prayed for him.

The Vatican is said to be investigating cases of miracles that are connected to Pope John Paul II since his passing. The Vatican is also considering possible Sainthood for Pope John Paul by examining various stories of reported miracles according to ABC News.

Hebrews 13:7 states, "Remember your leaders who spoke the word of God to you. Consider the outcome of their way of life and imitate their faith."

With respect to Pope John Paul II, I am reminded of Wisdom 3: 7 and 9, which states, "In time of their visitation, they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble. Those who trust in him shall understand truth, and the faithful shall abide with him in love; Because grace and mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with the elect."

For additional details regarding the recovery of Jory Aebly, please visit the following link: Vatican Investigates 'Miracle' Recovery of Man