Newman miracle findings to be sent to Rome

Peter Jennings reports on the dramatic developments in Boston, Massachusetts, that could put Cardinal John Henry Newman firmly on the road to sainthood TI IE TRIBUNAL set up in the United States last year to investigate an alleged miraculous cure through the intercession of the Venerable John Henry Cardinal Newman is on schedule to complete its work by the end of November.
The news was relayed by Cardinal Sean O'Malley, Archbishop of Boston, to Fr Paul Chavasse, provost of the Birmingham Oratory and postulator of the Newman Cause, and Dr Andrea Ambrosi, Roman postulator of the cause, during a meeting in Boston last week.
Cardinal O'Malley was accompanied by Mgr Mark Mahoney, his Judicial Vicar, and Dr Ambrosi by his American assistant, Heather Milligan, during the 40-minute meeting at Boston Cathedral.
The Cause under investigation concerns a deacon, Jack Sullivan, the Clerk Magistrate at Plymouth County Court, in the Archdiocese of Boston, who had a severe spinal disorder. Mr Sullivan was restored to full mobility after prayers to Cardinal Newman in 2001.
During the course of the meeting Dr Ambrosi informed Cardinal O'Malley that he would also be following up the case of Andrew Munroe, a 17-year-old South Korean boy, the adopted son of Greg and Mary Ann Munroe Sullivan (no relation to Deacon Sullivan) of Salem, New Hampshire.
Andrew suffered a severe head injury, and was near to death, after falling off the back of a car at the end of school on October 17, 2005.
On the same day, at the Venerable English College in Rome, during the launch of the book Benedict XVI And Cardinal Newman, Fr Chavasse had spoken about an unnamed deacon in the Boston area who had been healed after praying to Cardinal Newman.
Doctors told Andrew's family that they had done all they could for him and thought the time had come to switch off his life-support machine.
His mother blocked the move and told the doctors that she believed in the power of prayer.
The Munroes' parish priest, Fr Richard Cleary SJ, had read the news story in the Boston Globe
and suggested that they start praying to Cardinal Newman. Someone in Salem parish had identified the unnamed deacon and contacted him. Mr Sullivan agreed to conduct a healing service for Andrew at Massachusetts General Hospital on November 20.
Mr Sullivan had requested a relic of Cardinal Newman from Fr Chavasse in Birmingham and a lock of the cardinal's hair was sent to America. Mr Sullivan held a second healing service on November 26, 2005, attended by family and friends, at the North East Rehabilitation Hospital in New Jersey where Andrew had been moved a few days before.
During the service Mr Sullivan touched Andrew's forehead with the lock of Cardinal Newman's hair and then placed it beside him on his pillow.
Andrew began to make remarkable progress and has continued to do so.
Fr Chavasse said: "My visit to Boston was a great success. Cardinal O'Malley and Mgr Mahoney gave us a very positive update on the progress of their important work. Cardinal O'Malley assured us that the tribunal's work would be concluded and the papers sent to Rome before the end of November."
Fr Chavasse added: "Meeting with Mr Sullivan and Andrew Munroe and hearing at first hand accounts of their healing was both impressive and deeply moving. It is important that we continue to pray as this cause reaches another important stage in its history."
Mr Sullivan, speaking from his home in Marshfield, Massachusetts, said: "To prepare myself daily for morning prayer, I express my gratitude to Cardinal Newman for my healing and my vocation to the diaconate. He has become my very special friend. In like manner, I am grateful to Cardinal Sean O'Malley and his tribunal for the opportunity to testify to the beautiful experience which I received through Cardinal Newman's kindly intercession."
Dr Ambrosi was scheduled to meet Cardinal Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation of Causes of Saints, on Monday this week.
Cardinal Martins, a Newman devotee, will inform Pope
Benedict XVI of developments.
The annual prayers for Cardinal Newman's beatification and canonisation will be said at his grave, situated in the grounds of the Oratory House, Rednal, near Birmingham, at 3pm on Sunday August 13.