VATICAN CORNER
…continued Mrs. Audrey Toguchi, afflicted with cancer, began praying for a miracle from the late Father Damien, the “the self-exiled priest” who tended to his flock of lepers on the Hawaiian island of Molokai. Audrey spoke to her longtime friend and priest, Father MacNichol and told him she plan to visit Father Damien’s grave on Molokai. Father MacNichol had seen terminal patients in denial before, and he checked his calendar to see if he had time next month to perform a funeral. Then upon her return to Honolulu, Audrey’s doctor’s saw in a new x-ray that her vicious, aggressive metastasized cancer had not spread and instead had become smaller. Each month’s x-ray showed the masses smaller until finally her lungs were completely clear. She appeared to have an unexplained complete remission. Her doctors could not explain what had happened; it was completely unheard of for someone to survive such an aggressive cancer. One of her doctors told her “I don’t know how you did it”, and Mrs. Toguchi explained that she had help from above. In 1983, when Pope John Paul II had the chance to eliminate the miracle requirement for sainthood, he did not do so, but instead cut the number of miracles from four to two. Later he said that miracles were “like a divine seal which confirms the sanctity” of a saint. Bishop Larry Silva of Oahu, Hawaii, has said that we live in a world in which dark truths remain hidden, in which those that are popularly revered are later exposed to have done terrible things. “I think we have to be very careful about whom we canonize, and I think this is why the Church has come up with this process. Divine signs are important in order to be able to say ‘this person is in heaven (and) this person is worthy of elimination’ and sainthood. Dr. Chang, Mrs. Toguchi’s surgeon, knew that he was witness to something remarkable and mysterious. As a teenager, he had abandoned his Catholic faith, and he didn’t really believe in miracles, but he became convinced that at least for the Catholic Church, Mrs. Toguchi’s cure might be seen as evidence of Father Damien’s help from heaven. Dr. Chang met with Father Keahi, who had originally suggested Audrey pray to Father Damien. Dr. Chang was impressive with his presentation and said “he would challenge any physician to debate him regarding Audrey’s case.’ Father Keahi then composed a letter to Rome explaining the need for an investigation into a possible miracle. A tribunal was eventually assembled, where 4 of Audrey’s doctors answered medical questions from the Church’s expert physician. They all expressed surprise at Audrey’s cure and described it as unexplainable by the laws of nature. The ultimate conclusion was that no cause was found for Audrey Toguchi’s spontaneous regression of cancer. Then a commission of theologians needed to examine the case.
To be continued …Sources: Atlasobsura.com, catholic.org