Too Much Publicity For False "Cures"—Too Little For Real Miracles

—SAY LOURDES DOCTORS By a Staff. Reporter
" There is a disturbing contrast between the publicity given to the false cures the silence which envelopes the true ones." This is the conclusion of one of important statements issued last we ek by the president of the Medical Bureau At Lourdes.
The first document deals with the facts of a case of a genuine cure of a blind boy, the second with the alleged cures of recent pilgrimages. In this, with special reference to cures claimed by many newspapers as having taken place during the recent pilgrimage from Algeria, Dr. Leuret, the President, says :
" Every journalist has the right to give news, even if it is wrong. But none has the right to bring into the affair the statements of the Medical Bureau, or to insinuate, or allow it to be believed, that the publication of such stories is made through the Medical Bureau or with its consent."
The President of the Medical Bureau then goes on to say that he regrets the necessity of breaking professional silence but feels bound to point out that the alleged cures did not take place.
" No paralytic was cured," he says, and one " blind person, not three" showed an improvement but " that so slight, unfortunately, as to be unsuitable for verbal interrogation for cure." As for the alleged case of the cure of a deaf-mute, Dr. Leuret says this was a case of a vulgar swindle which ended up in the police courts."
UNCRITICAL CREDULITY " It is regrettable," the statement goes on, " that some Catholics, and even members of the clergy give themselves up to such uncritical credulity, particularly when there exists an organisation for scientific control, which was to-day admirably fitted up for the job, and backed by about a thousand doctors and which alone has the right, under the authority of the Church, to publish cures.
"This appetite for the prodigious at any price has nothing in common with faith, or with the virtue of hope. The effect of this curiosity is to do great disservice to the cause of Lourdes, it results not in drawing people to Lourdes but in successfully keeping away a large number of souls.
" And it is all the more regrettable because in the fuss made about the false cures, blindly published abroad, the true cures are drowned, and hardly mentioned. Sometimes one might well ask oneself if it is not an organised campaign to prevent belief in the truth of the fact o! Lourdes.
" Yet there is much to be said about recent cures, the publication of which through the work of the Medical Bureau is imminent. Gerard B, Guy L. and, more recently still, the cure of a malignant tumour of the intestine."
The statement concludes with the sentence quoted above : " There is a disturbing contrast between the publicity given to the false cures and the silence which envelopes the true ones."
GERARD BAILLIE
The other important document concerns the cure of Gerard Haillie, of St. Omer, a boy of seven who had been blind from the age of two. He was suffering from bilateral chorio-retinistis with double atrophy of the optic nerve, he was taken to Lourdes by his mother last September and suddenly regained his sight during the Stations of the Cross.
'' It was at the Fourth Station of the Way of the Cross," says the communiqué. " the Station where Jesus meets his Most Holy Mother. that, with an infinite delicacy which will fill all Christian hearts with emotion, the child instantly recovered his sight and he, too, was able to find his mother again."
The communique goes on to give details of the boy's schooling, now an ordinary school instead of a school for the blind, of his learning to read and write and look after himself, going to and from school and crossing roads normally full of traffic. He was back in Lourdes last month and subjected to rigorous scientific tests in respect to his ability to see, his reading and writing.
ENGLISH OCULIST'S EXAMINATION
"He was examined by the eminent English oculist, Dr. Smith," the communique goes on. '' who at that time was passing through Lourdes. It was revealed that this child still had the physical lesions of chorioretinitis with atrophy of the bilateral optic nerve and that the anatomical condition of the coverings of the eyes would not allow normal sight.
" This is the only known case up to date of the return of vision in a case of persistent chorio-retinitis."
The statement then goes on to say that the boy will he examined again in September this year, and the dossier of the case submitted to the permanent national medical commission for the examination of cures at Lourdes and then to Rome. It concludes : " Without wishing to prejudge the decisions which will be taken officially in this case the Medical Bureau of Lourdes, because of the publicity given to false and doubtful cures, believes it to be its duty to make known this visibily exceptional case."
The complete and instantaneous cure of Miss Malgogne has also been officially recognised by the ,Bureau, after nearly seven years without any relapse or recurrence of disease.
Miss Malgogne was in an advanced stage of tuberculosis and tubercular peritonitis. In October, 1941, she suddenly felt well while in the Lourdes bath and again during the Benediction of the sick, in the afternoon. The cure to her swollen stomach was so sudden that her skirt fell from her.
From that time forward she had no clinical symptoms of tuberculosis or peritonitis. The report adds "The cure cannot be explained in the present state of medical science."