A Real Miracle?

Great Debates
1

Hi,

I am in the process of losing my faith. But there are still a few things that are making me hold on. One of them is an account of a “miracle” that took place when Maureen Digan went to St. Faustina’s tomb in Poland and asked her to heal her.
From: http://pachome2.pacific.net.sg/~avemaria/index.htm

"The Miracle at the Tomb of Sister Faustina.

Before the age of 15, Maureen Digan enjoyed a normal healthy
life. Then she was struck down with a very serious, slowly
progressive but terminal disease called Lymphedima. This is a
disease that does not respond to medication and does not go into
remission. Within the next ten years Maureen had fifty operations
and had lengthy confinements in Hospital of up to a year at a
time. Friends and relations suggested she should pray and put her trust in God. But Maureen could not understand why God had allowed her to get this disease in the first place, and had lost her faith completely. Eventually her deteriorating condition necessitated the amputation of one leg. One evening while Maureen was in hospital her husband Bob went to a film called Divine Mercy, No Escape, and there he became convinced of the healing powers of intercession by Sr. Faustina. Bob persuaded Maureen and the Doctors that she should go to the tomb of Sr. Faustina in Poland. They arrived in Poland on March 23rd 1981 and Maureen went to confession for the first time since she was a young girl. At the tomb (now the Shrine of Blessed Faustina) Maureen remembers saying in her own inimitable style “O.k. Faustina I came a long way, now do something”. Innerly she heard Sister Faustina say: “If you ask for my help, I will give it to you.” Suddenly she thought she was having a nervous break-
down. All the pain seemed to drain out of her body and her swollen leg which was due to be amputated shortly, went back to its normal size.

When she returned to the U.S.A. she was examined by five independent doctors who came to the conclusion that she was completely healed. They had no medical explanation for the sudden healing of this incurable disease. The accumulated evidence of this miracle was examined in consultation by five doctors appointed by the Sacred congregation for the causes of saints, having passed this test it was examined by a team of theologians, and finally by a team of cardinals and bishops. The cure was accepted by all as a miracle caused by Sr. Faustina’s intercession to the Divine Mercy. Sr. Faustina was beatified on 18th April 1993."

How could this woman be healed? Her disease does not go into remission. I’ve read about this miracle from various sources. Maybe someone here can dig something up and refute it. I can only think of one explanation: she lied. But that doesn’t seem plausible from what I have read.

What do you guys think?

Thanks,

Rick

2

I’ve known a couple of folks who’ve had “terminal” diseases who’ve outlived their death sentences. Any decent doctor will tell you that there’s a lot humans don’t understand about illness and healing. Miracle? I suppose you could call it that. “Act of God”? Who knows?

3

Thanks for the reply.

I am wondering what the skeptics will say about this.

Also, I want to anticipate some responses by saying that I don’t know if I would be open to the suggestion that, yes, she was healed, but it wasn’t because of divine intervention. It was because of something that is medically unexplainable now but can in time be explained. Why? It seems a small chance that whatever healed her would do so as soon as she asked St. Faustina.

4

I think you should read the Administrator’s post on using Descriptive titles. Then repost your message as: “God heals Lymphedima through the tomb of Faustina.” Then anyone who really could care can take the time to read your post without being unsuspectingly lured into this B.S.

5

To it’s credit, the article does state the name of the person which is rare for something as dubious as this.

The following are the parts I find particularly suspicious:

A: The part about her leg instantly healing. Aside her testimony, there is probably no evidence to support this idea. How long after visiting this tomb was it until she visited a doctor again? How long was she out of doctors sight? I suspect she may have been away long enough for the leg to naturally (for whatever reasons) to heal and then decided to glorify it.
B: The cure being accepted as a miracle. Generally speaking, doctors do not get where they are by following the word of God. I could maybe accept one doctor accepting a cure as being a miracle, but five? This is either complete fiction or gross exaggeration.

My take is that there is something unknown and medical that kicked in and healed her. It just so happened to take place when she was visiting Poland, and by twisting a few facts (see above) she turned it into a religious miracle. Humans, even very educated, are naturally very superstitious and very likely to attribute coincidences to the unexplained.

6

Hi,

Thanks for the replies. And sorry about the title. Frithrah, I would like to know why you think it is “B.S.”

Thanks.

7

I’m automatically suspicious of any “miracle” and in this case after reading the story I looked up Lymphedema. The info can be found here.

Note that among other things, the condition can be temporary, and the swelling can be brought down by simply elevating the swollen limb.

The story just reads like an urban legend and the medical part is, to me, highly suspect.

8

The issue with all medical “miracles” is that the human body does have some quite amazing repair mechanisms.

9

frithrah, I didn’t think the thread title was misleading at all. The poster is asking if we think this is a miracle. The fact that you think it’s bullshit has nothing to do with the appropriateness of the title.

Incidently, I think it’s bullshit.

10

This one says that there is no evidence whatsoever that a divine or supernatural event occurred.

11

[/quote]
This one says that there is no evidence whatsoever that a divine or supernatural event occurred.
[/quote]

This one agrees, and would like to add that, as usual, a more plausible explanation has already turned up (in photopat’s post).

12

Isn’t there a rule against posting glurge in GD? (if there isn’t there oughtta be)

13

Because he’s an A-Hole.

His sole purpose for posting a reply was to get a response like mine. By the way, there’s no need to apologize to A-Holes.

14

richardc, the problem with your story is that nothing in it is really verifiable. Us “skeptics” like to know what all the facts are before we evaluate a parnoramal claim. We can’t really know what the facts are in this case because because it’s merely a personal anecdote offered without any empirical data which can be examined or falsified. The world is full of such anecdotes, just as it is full of anecdotes about aliens, ghosts and tghe Loch Ness monster.

Furthermore, even if the facts were substantially accurate as reported in the OP, there could still be natural explanations for the phenomon proffered as a paranormal event. As long as a natural explanation exists, there is no need to extropolate the supernatural.

In short, the story in the OP does not constitute an compelling per se evidence that a paranormal event has occurred.

15

Thanks for all the replies.

Photopat,

Thanks for the web site. It says on that web site that Lymphedima is incurable. The thing is with Maureen is that she has been completely cured. And cured not long after she asked St. Faustina for help. It seems odd that an incurable disease would suddenly be cured at this time, and there is no such thing as remission for this disease. Also, it has been 22 years since her supposed healing, and there has been no sign of it returning.

It appears plausible to me. I know it won’t make anyone believe, in light of Diogenes’ post, but I’m still looking for flaws in the story, so, if anyone knows…

…
Also, if anyone is interested, here is another article about it, essentially the same as above, except with more details: http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Olympus/7771/divmercy.html#d9.

Scroll down and click on “miracles”.
Thanks, guys.

16

richardc:

I’ve read about this miracle from various sources. Maybe someone here can dig something up and refute it. I can only think of one explanation: she lied. But that doesn’t seem plausible from what I have read.

I think it is certainly plausible she lied, and that’s where I would place my money. Besides why help one girl, isn’t god busy doing more important thinks like keeping air planes from crashing into buildings? Maybe not.:wink:

If she grew her amputated leg back I might be a little more impressed but this story seems like a yawner.

This one however:
http://www.theonion.com/onion3622/god_answers_prayers.html

17

Keep in mind, as well-the Vatican is very skeptical itself when it comes to proclaiming true miracles.

18

I’m going to agree with both andros and Marley23, and add an example of what Diogenes the Cynic was talking about.

Many people see and experience things that look to them like there could be no logical explanation, and so they believe it is a miracle. They aren’t necessarily lying, but it is very easy to jump to conclusions.

My older sister was born with some severe medical problems. (Severe for the times, anyway, this was in the mid-1940s.) Among other things, one of her lungs was completely collapsed, the other just barely working. Combined with the other problems, the doctors said she would be lucky to live through the night. My folks had their bishop come and give the baby a blessing (this is an LDS procedure, with specific prayers and actions). Then they prayed. By morning, the baby’s lungs had opened up, she was breathing on her own, and she was a normal healthy baby within a few days.

For the rest of their lives my parents believed that this was a genuine miraculous intervention by god, and that my sister could not have recovered any other way. This incident was a big factor in my father converting to the LDS faith.

Do I believe it was a miracle? No. Do I think they lied? Not at all. My folks were both very intelligent people, and honest to a fault.

But I heard that story on and off for 30 years, and it tended to get a little more dramatic as time went on. I wasn’t there, so my only evidence is what I heard from them. No medical records survive, no evidence of any kind except their story. We don’t even know exactly what the doctors said at the time, we only have my parent’s memory of what they said. So there just isn’t enough evidence to make a solid judgment.

My personal feeling is that my sister’s condition was not as grave as my folks thought at the time, and not as grave as it was told in later years. The baby recovered as babies sometimes do, no miracle required.

The moral of the story? The fact that we can’t explain what happened in a given situation doesn’t mean that we couldn’t explain it if we had better information. And sometimes stuff happens that seems to defy the odds. But the fact is that long shots do happen, it would be weird if they didn’t. We don’t need to invoke god to explain them.

I guess that was a long way to go to say what the others said in a sentence or two, but what the hell.

19

Interesting. Thank you for taking the time to post that, RJK.

20

Given the choice that:

A) God is capable of healing, chose to do it in this case, but at the same time let millions of innocent children suffer from cancer, malnutruion, polio, etc.

or

B) Her recovery is explained by more mundane circumstances

I’d rather believe B.