Page 2, 17th February 1978

17th February 1978

Page 2

Page 2, 17th February 1978 — Jesuit professor convinced of Lourdes miracles
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Locations: Paris, Rome

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Jesuit professor convinced of Lourdes miracles

A CANADIAN-BORN Jesuit scholar, in a new book on miracles, has said he is convinced that God has intervened miraculously at Lourdes to cure the sick.
Fr Leopold Sabourin, SJ, Professor of Exegesis and Biblical Theology at the Pontifical Biblical Insititute in Rome, discussed the miracles at the Marian shrine of Lourdes in a section of his book "The Divine Miracles Discussed and Defended" published in Rome by the Catholic Book Agency.
"Although it is difficult to single out as absolutely without
loopholes any of the Lourdes cures," Fr Sabourin wrote, "it would in our judgment be very irrational to consider the possibility that hundreds of physicians and professional theologians, not to speak of the bishops themselves, have all erred, and that none of the 62 cures recognised between 1862 and 1965 was truly miraculous," But Fr Sabourin urged caution in interpreting the Lourdes cures. Noting the finding of medical research that psychological factors could operate to produce or cure physical disorders, he said: "It is obvious that the whole atmosphere of praying faith in Lourdes does provide a potent psychological factor, which certainly accounts for many cases of sudden health recuperation at the shrine."
Of the 62 recognised cures, Fr Sabourin said, the larger number were of pulmonary tuberculosis, of tuberculous fistulae, of tuberculous peritonitis and of different kinds of eye diseases. Of those cured, 52 were women and 54 were French.
The Lourdes Medical Bureau was established in 1882 to review cures reported to be miraculous. Its procedures were revised in 1948. The bureau supplements the documentation supplied by the patient's physician or the pilgrimage doctor. The documentation on interesting cures is submitted to the International Medical Committee of Lourdes, which meets annually in Paris.
If this committee decides that the cure is clinically inexplicable, the new dossier is passed on with a recommendation to the canonical commission named by the local bishop of the patient's permanent residence. This commission has the competence to declare the cure a miracle, and usually waits a number of years to allow for a medical follow-up verifying complete recovery.
"Very few cases reach the ecclesiastical tribunal," Fr Sabourin said. "In 1947 the Lourdes bureau recommended only six out of 75 potential cure cases, and of these the international committee accepted only one. From 1946 to 1956 only 11 cases passed all three tribunals.
"In recent years the ecclesiastical authority has declared miraculous about half of the cases recommended by the international medical committee." The most common reason for rejection, he said, was that the cure was not instantaneous.
"With the development of medical techniques and facilities throughout the world and the state-financed institutions for the care of the incurables, the number of the seriously ill coming to Lourdes tends to diminish, and consequently the number of significant naturally inexplicable cures."




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