Woman Says World War II-Era Pope Cured Her Cancer
- Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:03am by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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In this photo taken in Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples, Italy, on June 23, 2011, Maria Esposito sits in her home with some portraits of Pope Pius XII. Esposito says the World War II-era pope cured her cancer, which could lead the way to his sainthood. (AP Photo/Salvatore Laporta)
CASTELLAMMARE DI STABIA, Italy (AP) — Maria Esposito was ready to give up. Wasted away at 42 kilos (92 pounds), she couldn‘t bear another dose of chemotherapy to fight the Stage IV Burkitt’s lymphoma that had invaded her body while she was pregnant with her second child.
But as she and her family had done since she was diagnosed with the rare and aggressive form of cancer in July 2005, Esposito prayed to the man who had appeared to her husband in a dream as the only person who could save her: Pope Pius XII.
Esposito survived, cured after a single, six-week cycle of chemotherapy — a recovery that, she says, stunned her doctors and convinced her that the World War II-era pope had intervened with God to save her.
Esposito’s case, which the 42-year-old teacher recounted to The Associated Press in her first media interview, has been proposed to the Vatican as the possible miracle needed to beatify Pius, one of the most controversial sainthood causes under way, given that many Jews say he failed to speak out enough to stop the Holocaust.
Pius’ main biographer, American Sister Margherita Marchione, has championed Esposito‘s miracle case and personally presented it to the Vatican’s No. 2 official, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone.
Pope Benedict XVI moved Pius one step closer to possible sainthood in December 2009 when he confirmed that Pius lived a life of “heroic” Christian virtue. All that is needed now is for the Vatican to determine a “miracle” occurred.
“I’m certain that inside of me there was the hand of God operating, thanks to the intercession of Pope Pius XII,” Esposito said during a recent interview in her cheery dining room in the seaside town of Castellammare di Stabia on the Amalfi coast. “I’m convinced of it.”
Doctors and church officials aren’t so sure.
Esposito’s local bishop, Monsignor Felice Cece, summoned Esposito earlier this year to testify about her recovery to determine if indeed it was medically inexplicable, one of the key thresholds required by the Vatican to determine if a miracle occurred.
After consulting two outside doctors, Cece determined that Esposito could have been cured by even a single cycle of chemo and essentially closed the case.
But Esposito’s supporters, led by Marchione, have gone over the bishop‘s head and are sending her full medical file directly to the Vatican’s saint-making office for review.
“I was saved. I thank the Lord,” said Esposito. “If he did something for me, then I now want to do something for him.”
The Rev. Peter Gumpel, the Jesuit historian who has spearheaded Pius’ saint-making cause for some two decades, said the case was under consideration but was noncommittal.
“We are at the very first preliminary stages of pre-investigation, and we are not even sure whether it will go ahead,” he said, stressing that regardless the process is still years away from fruition.
The Vatican’s saint-making process has long been subject to skeptics’ doubts.
Some question, for example, whether the original diagnosis was correct for the French nun whose inexplicable cure of Parkinson‘s disease paved the way for Pope John Paul II’s beatification. Others have questioned whether the Jewish convert Edith Stein should have been canonized based on the survival of a 2-year-old girl who overdosed on Tylenol.
As such, the questions surrounding Pius’ possible miracle are just further evidence of the obstacles and deep theological, historical and political divisions that his cause has run into ever since it was launched in 1965.
Pius was pope in 1939-1958. Before his election he served as the Vatican’s No. 2 and before that as papal nuncio to Germany. Given his deep involvement in the Vatican’s diplomatic affairs with the Nazis, what Pius did or didn‘t do during the war has become the single most divisive issue in the Vatican’s relations with Jews.
More recently, his beatification case has become the symbolic battleground in the debate over the future of the Catholic Church. Progressives are opposed to it because to them, Pius represents the church before the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Traditionalists and conservatives are in favor of it for precisely the same reasons.
The Vatican insists Pius used quiet diplomacy to save Jewish lives and that speaking out more forcefully against the Nazis would have resulted in more deaths. Critics argue he could have and should have said and done more.
“To talk about the pope as anything other than a moral coward as far as the murder of Jews of Rome is concerned is difficult for any of us who study what actually happened to take,” said Brown University anthropologist and historian David Kertzer, author of a forthcoming book on Pius’ predecessor, Pope Pius XI.
Despite opposition, Pius‘ cause is progressing at an impressive clip amid an increasingly concerted effort by Benedict and Pius’ supporters to highlight his virtues and discredit his naysayers. A museum is planned in his honor, as are conferences and exhibits.
The Vatican’s newspaper, Pius’ chief cheerleader, recently ran an article about how Pius had Jews sheltered in convents around Rome during the Nazi occupation. A Vatican-sponsored film festival in May screened three glowing films about his papacy. Benedict himself recently extolled Pius as a hero during the war, saying he’d earned the “everlasting gratitude” of its victims.
Jewish groups and historians have argued for years that the Vatican had no business moving forward with Pius‘ beatification cause until the Vatican’s full secret archive of his papacy is opened to scholars for independent research. That process is expected to take several more years.
“My position has always been to say — and I’ve said it to Pope Benedict XVI — that this is a matter that should be deferred until at least the generation of Holocaust survivors is no longer with us, so it’s not as if rubbing the salt into their wounds,” said Rabbi David Rosen, head of interfaith relations at the American Jewish Committee.
Last year, 19 Catholic scholars appealed to the academic in Benedict to give researchers more time to study the full archives. “The question isn‘t ’Did he do anything?’ but whether he might have done more or sooner,” said the Rev. John Pawlikowski, ethics professor at the Catholic Theologcial Union who co-wrote the letter.
Pius’ supporters, however, are getting impatient. They charge that few scholars ever consult the 11 volumes of World War II archives that have already been released and put online, along with thousands of other documents, by a foundation headed by a Long Island Jew who admires Pius.
“It annoys me terribly that such an injustice is being done to such a great man, that he should be treated the way he is,” said Marchione, the Pius biographer who is promoting Esposito’s miracle case.
Sitting in her order‘s convent a stone’s throw from the Vatican, Marchione said her religious congregation alone, on orders from Pius, sheltered 114 Jewish women at three separate convents during the Nazi occupation.
“I‘m just tired of the whole thing that people can’t go back to the documents that prove it and accept it as historical truth,” she said in a recent interview.
Marchione flips through one of her nine books on Pius to prove her point: a photo of Jewish women and children sheltered in the papal summer residence at Castel Gandolfo; a photo of a pro-pope rally after Rome was liberated in 1944; a shot of the pope with members of the Israeli Philharmonic who in 1955 performed a concert for Pius in the Vatican in gratitude for having saved Jews.
Marchione has been unflagging in her support for Esposito’s case, presenting it first to Bertone, the Vatican’s secretary of state, in 2009 and recently sending her secretary to Castellammare di Stabia to gather Esposito‘s testimony and medical file to send directly to the Vatican’s saint-making office.
For Pius’ supporters, the hunt for a miracle is all the more urgent because he isn’t a household name like Mother Teresa or Pope John Paul II. Where he is known, it’s most often in the context of his controversial record, not necessarily because people would think to pray to him for a medical cure.
Esposito, in fact, said she had never heard of Pius until she fell ill.
Her husband, Umberto di Maio, said the family had been praying to John Paul II, who had died just a few months before, when Esposito was diagnosed in July 2005. But as di Maio recounts it, John Paul appeared to him in a dream one night and said he couldn’t help Esposito but showed a photo of a slim, bespecled prelate who could.
Di Maio said he wasn’t able to identify the priest until he saw Pius on the cover of a Catholic magazine a week later. As soon as he did, the family began fervently praying to Pius.
The family became convinced of Pius‘ intervention when Esposito’s case was referred to a cancer specialist in Rome, an atheist who, after reviewing her charts, asked the family if they believed in God.
When di Maio replied they did, the doctor said: “Then pray, because she needs it,” di Maio recounted.
Esposito, who still keeps the same dog-eared photocopy of Pius in her book of prayers, says she and her doctors were stunned when her PET scan, which detects lingering traces of cancer, came out clean after her six-week chemo cycle at the Umberto I hospital in the southern city of Nocera, near Salerno.
Her doctor, she said, was flabbergasted: “‘Do you see this? It’s clean! How is it possible?’” Esposito recalled Dr. Alfonso Maria D’Arco, head of oncology and hematology at Umberto I, as saying.
“And spontaneously I said to him, ‘Doctor, doctor, isn’t it possible that it came from above?” she said, pointing heavenward.
“No, no, no. Don’t say shocking things,” she said he responded.
“But for me it was a miracle, because it wasn’t possible,” she said, fighting back tears. “It wasn’t possible. Not even they believed it in that moment.”
D‘Arco didn’t respond to email requests for comment and couldn’t be reached by telephone.
Dr. Ann S. LaCasce, an assistant professor of medicine at the Harvard Medical School’s lymphoma program and affiliated Dana Farber Cancer Institute, said Esposito‘s speedy recovery wasn’t all that remarkable.
“Not surprising at all,” LaCasce said after reviewing the protocol Esposito received. “The key is this aggressive, multi-agent chemotherapy regimen that she got. It doesn’t sound like a miracle at all. She did great, as expected.”
LaCasce, who said she treats four to five cases of Burkitt’s a year, said the prognosis for the rare subtype of non-Hodgkin lymphoma is usually very good, particularly for children and young adults who can tolerate the high toxicity that the aggressive chemo entails.
“Burkitt’s is a disease we like to treat because they do really well, they feel better so quickly,” LaCasce said. “She was cured of her disease with the appropriate chemotherapy.”
Esposito and her supporters, however, are undeterred. Just last week, she traveled to Rome to take part in a ceremony outside St. Peter’s Square marking the anniversary of the day the city of Rome dedicated a piazza to Pius to thank him for having defended Rome from the Nazis.
Esposito says she wants people to know Pius not just for what he did for Rome but for her.
“I am here. I want to say I’m alive. I know what I went through and I assure you, it was really serious, something awful. Death was very close. And I am here.”
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Comments (141)
gzinecker
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:22pmSorry for the triple post, but if, as Snowleopard might be insinuating, this miracle was an act of the Devil, then why is this Woman’s faith in God strengthened? I highly doubt that the Devil would perform an act that would strengthen someones faith in God.
And thank everyone else for supporting Catholics.
Report Post »Gamaliel
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:21pm“Saint making process” is mentioned more than once. Very snide anti-Catholic innuendo.
Report Post »Rational Man
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:13pmThe Catholic church has re-defined what or who a saint is based on ‘works’ instead of THE WORKS that Jesus Christ has already done for everyone on the cross.
Report Post »It is not biblical!…….As is much of Catholic doctrine…………….
Merrymix
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 2:32pmIf it were not for the Catholic Church, you would have no Bible. It was the Catholic Church, in the plentitude of her authority at the Third Council of Carthage, that separated the chaff from the wheat declaring which scriptures were authentic and which were apocrapha and gave us what today we call the Holy Bible. Much later, when Martin Luther disagreed with the teachings of God’s holy Church, he took it upon himself to remove 7 books of the Bible. That is where the dissention comes in because obviously you haven’t been allowed to read all of the Bible. Otherwise you would be aware that in the Book of James, it clearly says: “Faith without WORKS is USELESS.”
Report Post »N8B
Posted on July 4, 2011 at 3:33pmJames does say “faith without works is dead”, but you are misinterpreting. If you have true faith, you will act in a godly manner, you will perform good deed reflecting the love Christ has for you to others, so that other’s will see your faith. However, your salvation is not dependent on works for Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast”
Report Post »gzinecker
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:05pm@Slickmeister: Didn‘t the Apostles in the Bible perform Miracles in Jesus’ name? I believe they did. As a matter of fact, they drove out demons, spoke in tongues, and did healed people. So, I don’t know what you are talking about.
Report Post »gzinecker
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:03pmI had to register an account to just say this: I am absolutely tired of all the hate on the comment pages for this website against Catholics. I cannot understand what brings people to call us idol worshipers, worshipers of false gods, Satan worshipers, or any of the like. Catholics don’t think that of other sects of Christianity, so why does everyone hate on us? Try reading up on our beliefs before spouting off on things that you don’t understand.
@ Baltotrav: Thank you for defending Catholics. One of the few, if the only one on this site.
@Whitefang: What is so hard to understand the fact that we do not pray to any other person besides God? When we ‘pray’ to the saints, we are asking them to intercede for us to God. It is the exact same thing as asking a friend of yours to pray for you. You are not praying to your friend, you are asking them to intercede for you to God. Exactly the same as asking the saints, or other souls in Heaven, to pray for you.
@everyone else: Can we please stop the name calling against Catholics? As much as you seem to dislike us, and think we are the bad guys, we are not. We are all on the exact same side, along with the Jews. So please, can we forget fighting amongst each other, and start worrying about other things in the world? Thanks.
Report Post »Old Truckers
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:19pmgzinecker,
Report Post »What I see here is Catholics with their propensity to disregard Bible scripture in favor of praying to a saint in heaven. Whitefang only highlighted what the Bible said, and look how some respond. He did not give a personal opinion, he let us all know what the Bible actually says pertaining to the matter at hand. Scriptually, we are to pray to God through Jesus Christ, we are not to pray to a “saint”. That is clear enough isn’t it?
Baltotrav
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:31pmI think a lot of the talk on this particular article is about saints because the article was about a possible soon to be recognized saint in the Catholic Church. Scripture informs and guides the Church but the Church is shaped by tradition. Every service during the year (daily and Sunday Mass combined) three readings are read from the bible. Over the course of 3 years the entire Bible is read and those readings are what is preached on during the homily, not a current event or something at the Priests whim, he preaches on the daily readings from the Bible. I admit Catholics are not as knowledgeable as our brothers in Christ in regard to the Bible but we are trying to catch up with many more Bible studies and classes offered all the time. I hope this helps to understand us a bit more. Not trying to make trouble.
Report Post »Baltotrav
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:21pm@gzinecker thanks
Report Post »Bearfoot
Posted on July 5, 2011 at 5:53pmGzinecker,
I was reading through the comments here and I ran across your statement to whitefang on page 2.
This is what you said and thought it amusing; “we do not pray to any other person besides God?“ And then the very next sentence you say ”When we ‘pray’ to the saints, we are asking them to intercede for us to God.”
Funny!
Report Post »TheDudeAbides
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:57pmI have never been more discussed with the members writing on here. The Roman Catholic Church has been around longer that ANY Christian religion. If you don’t believe in Saints and that they can pray on our behalf to God, that is fine. But to slam and mock a religion of many, many, many people on here you are showing your hypocrisy and lack of tolerance. Stand with Israel! Jews are being persecuted again! Don’t let the left do what they are trying to do to Israel! All good and right as it should be. However, many of you here are mocking and down right being cruel to Catholics. It is offensive and makes me ashamed of being a member here. I thought this site was better than that. It seems I was wrong. If you don’t like the story…don’t read it! If Catholics discuss you so much maybe you better look in the mirror and examine your own “spirituality”. We should all be on the same team, Christians (of all denominations) and Jews. We are fighting a war against the Atheists and the left and we are loosing the battle because we are bickering over who‘s Christian Church is better than the other’s. You can take a nice story of a woman who asked a person she deemed in heaven to intervene to God on her behalf and now she is cancer free. A woman of faith, a believer in Jesus Christ, is treated like a dog. I hope you feel better about yourselves knowing YOUR God is better than everyone else’s God.
Report Post »Thun
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:57pmActs 5 12-16
12
Report Post »2 Many signs and wonders were done among the people at the hands of the apostles. They were all together in Solomon’s portico.
13
None of the others dared to join them, but the people esteemed them.
14
Yet more than ever, believers in the Lord, great numbers of men and women, were added to them.
15
Thus they even carried the sick out into the streets and laid them on cots and mats so that when Peter came by, at least his shadow might fall on one or another of them.
16
A large number of people from the towns in the vicinity of Jerusalem also gathered, bringing the sick and those disturbed by unclean spirits, and they were all cured.
JGraham III
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:55pmThere is a record in the Gospels where a blind man was healed because he believed that the spit of a holy man could heal. Jesus knew this by revelation and so spit on the ground and made clay of it and annointed the man’s eyes. Go wash in the pool of Siloam he was told and when he did he came back with his eyesight restored. Make what you want from this but the point is that God is able and willing to meet a person at the level of faith they have to be healed. Both the man in the gospel record and this woman in Italy believed God could and would heal if they did such in such and the end was both received their healing. I would not presume to mock or question their faith even if my own personal belief and understanding about how God heals doesn’t coincide with theirs. Praise God she is healed!
Report Post »WhiteFang
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:54pm“For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, a man, Christ Jesus, – 1 Timothy 2:5
Where does the Bible ever say we can do it differently?
Report Post »ConservativeHippie
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:49pmAgain and again this site and people on it take every chance they can to trash the Catholic Church.
Baltotrav gave a pretty good explanation of what Catholics believe. Why is it so hard to understand?
As for the Pope, Jesus made his apostle Peter the first Pope and he is also a saint.
Report Post »Baltotrav
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:38pmOne more time……The Pope Does NOT Preform Miracles…..the woman prayed to Pope Pius XII to PRAY to God for her miracle and then GOD preforms the miracle. What is so hard to understand about that?????
Report Post »WhiteFang
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:46pmBaltotrav,
Report Post »Christians are to pray only to the True God through the priestly office of His Son, Jesus Christ. What is so hard to understand?
Baltotrav
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:14pmWhitefang,
Report Post »This woman is a Catholic. In the Catholic faith believers often pray for “intercession” through those already in heaven, which means they are asking those who are already before the face of God to pray for them. Just as you would ask a friend to pray for you or a family member who is struggling with illness or temptation to sin or whatever. Is not your friend praying to the our Lord for you? These are what Catholics believe are holy “friends” and are asking them to pray for them from Heaven. I completely understand non Catholics view of “crazy Catholics” as I am a convert to the Catholic faith. All I know is that prayer is a conversation and I talk to God all the time, but I also talk to my Dad in Heaven and who I know is right there with our Lord and I ask him to pray to God for me as
well. I get upset when people call faithful Catholics pagans and idol worshipers. Most I know are strongly prolife and devout followers of Our Lord Jesus Christ. I guess I am a little tired of Catholic being maligned on a regular basis, and it seems to be OK. Read the article again, it doesn’t say she is praying for the Pope to heal her but for him to pray for her. I am not looking for a fight just hoping others will try and understand my faith. Godspeed :)
bomberotom
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:21pmMy friend, you do not understand, her praying to someone to pray for her is precisely the same as you or me asking someone to pray for us or us praying for someone else. In the Bible, Paul frequently asks people to pray for him (Rom. 15:30–32, Eph. 6:18–20, Col. 4:3, 1 Thess. 5:25, 2 Thess. 3:1), and even more so, Jesus himself required us to pray for others, and not just the ones who ask us to do so (Matt. 5:44). Please do not be so quick to judge what you do not understand.
Report Post »UlyssesP
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 2:26pmThe praying to the pope part is weird. I’m not good enough for God to listen to directly? I need this pope guy to intercede? How many pedophiles did this one know about back in the “WW2 era” and look the other way?
Report Post »nomercy63
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:34pmIdol worship Again!!!!!!!!! I don’t think anyone gets the true meaning of faith anymore! It is just what you feel like packaging up to fit whatever specific need you have!!!!
Report Post »Hephzibah
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:23pmBurkitt’s is a type of cancer which has a very high cure rate.
Report Post »WhiteFang
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:18pmSatan can transform himself into an angel of light.
Report Post »2 Corinthians 11:3, 14
bomberotom
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:16pmThe bible also says that you shall not bear false witness against thy neighbor. The Catholic Church teaches that when you pray for a saints intervention and your prayers are answered, God is the one who answers the prayer ultimately. “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all men, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life, godly and respectful in every way. This is good, and pleasing to God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:1–4) Praying to a saint for his or her intervention is not unlike asking someone to pray for you.
Report Post »slickmeister
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:18pmI don’t buy into the idea that any pope can perform miracles reserved for God. These are just MEN, not deities.
Report Post »Baltotrav
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:10pmOne more thing. Am I on The Blaze or The Huffington Post??
Report Post »Baltotrav
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:09pmThe woman is a Catholic Christian. She believes she was cured through the intercession of Pope Pius XII. The cure itself she KNOWS came from God Almighty. She is not praying to the illuminati or and idol nor is she a pagan. How many Christians of other denominations on occasion say to someone they believe to be in Heaven “so and so could you put in a good word for me with the Man upstairs” , this is the same thing. Hope this makes we crazy Roman Catholics a bit more understandable.
Report Post »wedgeii
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:02pmThis woman it stupid.
Report Post »DLG123
Posted on July 5, 2011 at 10:18am“This woman it stupid”
WOW… when calling someone stupid you might want to check your spelling before you do it or you look well… stupid.
Report Post »RightPolitically
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:30amThis is the kind of stuff that allows those on the left to mock Christians and Christianity. They see us as a bunch of imbeciles and fools. I don’t know what to say. Thank God this lady is cured!
Report Post »Talmid of Yeshua
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:18amSorry, you idolatress, HaShem, God Almighty, cured your cancer. No pagan and worshipper of idols cured your disease.
Glad to hear you no longer have cancer though. But don’t give thanks to Satan.
Report Post »bomberotom
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:09pmDo not speak so harshly about what what you apparently know little to nothing about. “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.”
Report Post »Proverbs 15:1
KickinBack
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:18amPrayers can do miracles within themselves. As for Sainthood, I thought the miracles had to of happened while the person was still living.
Report Post »BuckleUpAmerica
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:17amThe Pope didn’t cure anything! God did!
Report Post »Gamaliel
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:33pmThen why do you pray for others, or don’t you? When we pray we are speaking to God for ourselves or others. Catholics believe that those that have died are in the “communion of saints”, that is the unity of Christians is not broken due to physical death. Since the saints have been made perfect through Christ’s sacrifice they are now made holy and fully in the prescence of God. Since they are our friends and are perfect friends to God we ask them to intercede for us and others.
The example I was given was if you were trying to gain access to a president or someone else in power. If you knew his wife or someone else he was close to wouldn’t you go through that person to better attain his attention?
Report Post »Gamaliel
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:37pmThen why do you pray for others, or don’t you? When we pray we are speaking to God for ourselves or others. Catholics believe that those that have died are in the “communion of saints”, that is the unity of Christians is not broken due to physical death. Since the saints have been made perfect through Christ’s sacrifice they are now made holy and fully in the prescence of God. Since they are our friends and are perfect friends to God we ask them to intercede for us and others.
The example I was given was if you were trying to gain access to a president or someone else in power. If you knew his wife or someone else he was close to wouldn’t you go through that person to better attain his attention?
Report Post »samheaken
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:58pmThank You – i am so tired of miracles claimed by man. Only God.
Report Post »brianeitz
Posted on July 4, 2011 at 12:19amread the article again …she says God cures her
Report Post »teddrunk
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 2:02pmExactly. I’ve always thought the idea of asking a dead person to intervene for you with God was something out of The Godfather.
Report Post »brianeitz
Posted on July 4, 2011 at 12:17amObviously people who say this don’t understand the Catholic faith at all or are misleaded. the pope does not cure people its believed that God cures through the popem a very common misunderstanding.
Report Post »AtheistElite
Posted on July 4, 2011 at 8:09amGod didn’t cure anything, modern medicine did!
Report Post »Charles
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:14amSo they’re praying to dead men? What about God or Jesus?
Off topic but it is remarkable that microsofts built in spell checker wants me to capitalize the first letter of the words microsoft and marx , but its just fine with the first letter in word God in lower case. gates – the godless marxist. = )
Report Post »Baberaham Lincoln
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 7:12pmThat is because Marx and Microsoft are proper nouns — they are names. The word god is perfectly fine uncapitalized, and has a different meaning than God. That’s why we can talk about how “TV is like a god to kids” and stuff like that, without having to capitalize. Be rational, this has nothing to do with ideology, and everything to do with proper grammar and spelling.
Report Post »13th Imam
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:13amWhat will cure the Blaze of the dreaded Huffpo Virus? It is a deadly strain of stupid. and has infected this site. Let them know
Report Post »Anybody but Barry 2012
BlackAce41
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 12:51pmwhere do u get off thinking it is turning in to Huffington Post? i would like to to know your Evidence?
Report Post »Baltotrav
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:17pmBlackace41,
Report Post »Just feels like an attack on the Catholic Church, I was hoping for a bit more understanding here at the Blaze. No harm meant.
Blazer123
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 4:25pmAgree 13th, definitely not the story I come here to read. Just silly
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:12amOkay, a miracle allegedly done by a dead man? Now in the way I understand miracles being done they are one of two categories:
A. FROM GOD, which are the true miracles for his glory and message to the world and show the faith of his people and his mercy and power and authority.
B. From the DEVIL, which are false near mirror immages – remember, Jesus always healed and told the people to stand up and walk – not fall down “slain in the spirit.”
Report Post »Baltotrav
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:34amIn the Catholic faith believers pray to those who are in Heaven to intercede on their behalf to our Lord for a Grace. That may be a medical cure or spiritual conversion….or maybe peace on earth. In the Catholic church there is the Church Militant, those still on earth struggling against temptation, sin, the devil, and there is the Church Triumphant, those souls in Heaven seeing the face of God. They are all considered saints, just not officially recognized by the Church. Catholics pray to any of these people as they see the face of God. But they don’t say St. _ cure me, they pray, St._ pray that I may be cured through our Lord Jesus Christ. As I like to say “our eyes are on the prize” and that is our Lord Jesus Christ. Godspeed
Report Post »tower7femacamp
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:44amcrazy women says……
But in the real world
On June 9, 2011, President Obama issued a sweeping executive order for a White House Rural Council that purports to exert broad municipal powers over the food, fiber, and energy production of rural America. Where’s the Line, America to how much power the president can amass by executive order? Notice the talking head that keeps bashing “conspiracy theorists” who don’t want federal control over local lands.
http://www.infowars.com/president-obama-executive-order-13575-creates-rural-councils/
agenda 21 moves forward, I hope this Pope can feed us all….
Report Post »tower7femacamp
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:46amthe Illuminatti can cure cancer, why do you think they all live
Report Post »so long ????? remember Magic Johnson’s Aids ???
Did this Pope cure him also ?
tower7femacamp
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:47amhttp://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/sociopolitica/sociopol_1001club01.htm
Report Post »Marylou7
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:48amExactly!
Report Post »npbreakthrough
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 11:57am“what if cannabis cured cancer?”
Report Post »Seasoldier
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:49pmAll true miracles are from God. In 1983, Pope John Paul II made sweeping changes in the canonization procedure. The process begins after the death of a Catholic whom people regard as holy. Often, the process starts many years after death in order give perspective on the candidate. The local bishop investigates the candidate’s life and writings for heroic virtue (or martyrdom) and orthodoxy of doctrine. Then a panel of theologians at the Vatican evaluates the candidate. After approval by the panel and cardinals of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, the pope proclaims the candidate “venerable.” The next step, beatification, requires evidence of one miracle (except in the case of martyrs). Since miracles are considered proof that the person is in heaven and can intercede for us, the miracle must take place after the candidate’s death and as a result of a specific petition to the candidate. When the pope proclaims the candidate beatified or “blessed,” the person can be venerated by a particular region or group of people with whom the person holds special importance.
Report Post »Only after one more miracle will the pope canonize the saint (this includes martyrs as well). The title of saint tells us that the person lived a holy life, is in heaven, and is to be honored by the universal Church. Canonization does not “make” a person a saint; it recognizes what God has already done.
jobe
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 1:53pmNo man is a saint unless their sins have been removed from them. Jesus makes all Christians saint’s. Not the Pope.
Report Post »watchmany2k
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 5:50pmIt’s Sunday, so it must be an odd article about a Catholic, who is put forth as the whole church, so we can get 4 pages of “discussion” in the comments.
Catholics are allowed to ask favors of those who died in Christ, to intercede on their behalf.
IE they are dead and therefore presumed to be spirit and in the rhelm of God. If they have God’s ear as it were, and God deems it to his purpose a miracle or Grace is given. when this occurs, said dearly departed are elevated as to apparent proximity to God, via the miracles or grace attributed to them and verified. Connonization, beautified, Saint. All have a verification process.
Hey Blaze, how about some equal opportunity Religion articles, Surely the Mormon Church has events and people doing things in the world ? Maybe the next group of missionaries embarking on their journey, Preparation for the reconstruction of Israel in what ohio ? maybe a list of names of the dead who have be re-baptised ?
I find it odd that almost every article is about ANY of the other religions, and the only time we hear about Mormon, is that liberals are anti-mormon when it comes to this or that candidate.
How about some sunday fairness ?!
Report Post »JRook
Posted on July 3, 2011 at 10:32pmSo i guess this sets everything right with the Catholic church. Good I guess. To echo another post this has to be one of the stupidest reports I have ever seen on here. Is it your editorial policy now to become the online National Enquirer?
Report Post »Candertwin
Posted on July 4, 2011 at 11:54amGod always performs miracles through the living. The living exist here on earth as well as in heaven, as we are souls, not just bodies on Earth. As a saint, one is still living, as they have eternal life in heaven. The Vatican recognizes their life through canonization. The church triumphant consist of all living souls in heaven, or saints… “They are all considered saints, just not officially recognized by the Church.” (Good explanation BALOTRAV). When a saint intercedes for us, it adds as evidence that a person who passed away here on earth is still living in heaven. God performs miracles through all who are living. If a saint, Pope PiusXII is not a dead man. He was the pope here on earth, but no longer in heaven, as he is a member of the communion of saints. Just be thankful that you are here, a living being on earth, and that God CAN perform miracles through you. Take care of your soul, and pray much. :-)
Report Post »Guerrino_P
Posted on July 4, 2011 at 12:07pmFurther proof that Roman Catholicism is the only true christianity. The rest are just pretenders.
Report Post »taksavillage
Posted on July 5, 2011 at 11:10pmYou obviously know very little in this area, but somehow it never keeps you from posting your opinion. Please be a little more diligent.
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