The postulator for the cause of Blessed Damien will return to Hawaii to put the sainthood process back on track
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
The postulator for the cause of Blessed Damien de Veuster, Sacred Hearts Father Emilio Vega Garcia, will return to Hawaii next month to put the sainthood process for the famed Molokai missionary back on track.
The Vatican Congregation of the Causes of Saints had recently informed the postulator, the primary promoter of Father Damien’s cause in Rome, that the report on the miracle required for canonization needed further documentation.
According to vice-postulator Sacred Hearts Sister Helene Wood, Father Garcia will come to Hawaii on Feb. 15 to request that the diocese reconvene a tribunal to address certain concerns enumerated by the Vatican congregation.
In early 2003, Father Garcia came to Hawaii to direct the documentation of an unexplained healing from cancer of an Oahu woman to submit to the Vatican as the “miracle” needed for Blessed Damien’s canonization.
The process of gathering testimony about the cure from the patient and her doctors, relatives and spiritual directors was completed on April 16, 2003. Father Garcia delivered the documents on April 24, 2003, to Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which filed the evidence as case number 218-78/03.
The file was formally opened for examination on Sept. 11, 2003.
Miracle cases are examined with rigorous scrutiny by the Vatican congregation’s committees of doctors, theologians and bishops. The alleged miracle, usually a healing, must be dramatic and defy medical explanation, and should take place within the context of prayers offered exclusively to the candidate for sainthood.
According to one person familiar with the process, most alleged “miracles” fail the test.
During the initial tribunal process two years ago, Father Garcia, an experienced postulator, said that it was his opinion that the healing in question was truly “miraculous.” Also convinced were the several doctors involved in the case, not all of whom were Catholic.
The cure in question involved the disappearance without treatment of cancer from the lungs of a Honolulu woman six years ago. The case was documented in an article about “complete spontaneous regression of cancer” published by Dr. Walter Y.M. Chang, in the October 2000 issue of the Hawaii Medical Journal.
The doctor’s wrote that, over a period of several months following prayers to Blessed Damien and pilgrimages to Kalaupapa on the part of the patient, the “lung metastases disappeared with no therapy at all.”
The Spanish-born Father Garcia, said at the time that the documents for this case ranked among the “best” of all the cases in which he has participated as a postulator.
However, according to Sister Helene Wood, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints is seeking further clarification regarding some of the testimony, and statements from additional witnesses.
She said the Vatican also had expressed doubts as to whether Blessed Damien was the sole recipient of prayers seeking healing.
But Sister Helene, too, is convinced of the legitimacy of the miracle. She said she is “hopeful” the issues will eventually be resolved to the congregation’s satisfaction.
“The cause has not been dismissed,” she said. “It is on hold, suspended until further investigation.”
A previous miracle had also been required for Father Damien’s beatification, the step before canonization. On June 13, 1992, Pope John Paul II approved the 1895 cure of a Sacred Hearts Sister as a miracle attributed to Damien’s intercession.
In that case, Sister Simplicia Hue of France began a novena to Father Damien as she lay dying at age 37 of a lingering intestinal illness. The pain and symptoms of the illness disappeared overnight on Sept. 11, 1895, and Sister Simplicia lived for another 32 years.
Pope John Paul II beatified Father Damien on June 4, 1995, in Brussels, Belgium.