As you may be aware from a recent edition of the ‘Postulator’s Desk’, we had pinned great hope of advancing Edmund’s Cause to canonisation by a cure in the Cork region attributed to Blessed Edmund. Betty and her family were convinced that the intercession of Blessed Edmund was involved in Betty’s restoration to full health after a serious operation for the removal of a large tumour from her brain.  Nobody was denying the skilful operation performed by the Neurosurgeon for the removal of the tumour. It was after the operation that things seemed to deteriorate for Betty.  She remained in a coma, and it was only after the application of a first-class relic of Blessed Edmund that she regained consciousness and made a rapid recovery, so much so that today, three years after her hospital visit, she is not on any form of medication. What made her recovery all the more remarkable was that two Brothers, one a Christian Brother, the other a Presentation Brother, were involved in procuring the relic for her in the very city were Edmund Rice’s followers divided into two separate congregations all those years ago in 1827. Maybe I was too sanguine! The family members and their GP were convinced that something extraordinary had occurred.  I had been trying to contact Betty’s surgeon, a very busy man, and then my own neurosurgery delayed any contact between us.  His report finally arrived a few weeks ago, and what a disappointment it turned out to be. He was convinced that no miracle happened! Maybe he thought that we were trying to downgrade his own surgical skills. His report includes the following paragraph:

 

“No miracle took place here. She developed post-operative complications which were probably predictable given the enormous size of her tumour.  With benefit of steroids and good nursing care, plus the passage of time, her condition improved over a number of days which, again, was predictable. Speaking as a surgeon and therefore as a scientist, I have little belief in miracles.”

 

I wrote a nice letter in reply to the Surgeon, who is not a Catholic, thanking him for taking the trouble to put pen to paper.  It included the following:

 

“When people are gravely ill, their families and friends, in desperation, resort, not only to the best medical services but to various forms of prayer, either directly to God the Healer or to one of his saints. I do realise that it must be frustrating for surgeons who have used up-to-date procedures to have these ignored and the improvement in the patient attributed instead to miraculous intervention.  Normally, grace builds on nature, and it would be foolhardy indeed to ignore medical science. Yet, for a believer, there are cases from time to time that appear to defy the ordinary laws of healing. Whether they are miracles or are attributable to hidden healing powers within the body may be interpreted according to one’s belief system, but they are outside the usual medical sequences. So I keep on hoping that some day a ‘cure’ attributed to Blessed Edmund Rice will satisfy the high criteria upheld by the Medical Bureau at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome and so help to have Blessed Edmund declared ‘SAINT Edmund Rice’.

 

So, is this the end of the matter?  The only hopeful phrase in the surgeon’s report is the use of the phrase “probably predictable”. He is entitled to his opinion. The family and their friends are disappointed but are quietly convinced of the intervention of Blessed Edmund’s intercession on behalf of the sick woman. The surgeon, however, is not prepared to admit anything but good medical procedures.  To have his views overturned, an independent surgeon of equal or higher competence nominated by the Congregation for the Causes of Saints would have to examine the case and over-rule the opinion of the neurosurgeon, and Rome is very reluctant to go to that extreme, especially when there is some doubt in the matter.

 

We have been at this point a few times in the past few years concerning a number of reported cures.  In the end, the medical evidence was not sufficiently strong to convince the Medical Bureau in Rome, and so it is back to the drawing board.  It isn’t that a definitive verdict was returned that no miracle occurred - in all cases, the recipients were convinced that a miracle had happened – but that the medical evidence was insufficient to prove “beyond reasonable doubt” that a miraculous cure had occurred.  Remember that at Lourdes, despite the many thousands of cures claimed over the years, only 67 cases are accepted as truly miraculous by the Medical Bureau there. It doesn’t mean that all the other occurrences are sham.