Lourdes doctors leave ruling on 'mir... 
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Lourdes doctors leave ruling on 'miracles' up to the church
Doctors leave it to church to decide on Lourdes events
By Jamey Keaten
Associated Press December 4, 2008
PARIS — An international panel of doctors appointed by the Roman Catholic Church says it's getting out of the "miracle" business at Lourdes.
The panel will no longer judge whether pilgrims to the French shrine could have benefited from "miracle" healing—a huge shift from the centuries-old way of deciding what makes the cut as a divine cure.
"It seems 'miracle' may not be the right word to use anymore," Bishop Jacques Perrier of the diocese of Tarbes and Lourdes said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It's no longer a black-and-white question."
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-miracle_04dec04,0,2628577....
The shrine in the foothills of the Pyrenees mountains in southwestern France draws 6 million pilgrims a year, many of whom believe that its spring water can heal and even work miracles. Pope Benedict XVI traveled there in September to celebrate the 150th anniversary of apparitions of the Virgin Mary to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous.
Over the years, more than 7,000 pilgrims have said they were healed after bathing in or drinking Lourdes water. The church has officially deemed 67 cures "miraculous."
In 1954, the Tarbes-Lourdes diocese created the panel of doctors today known as the International Medical Committee of Lourdes, which one doctor said for years all but decided whether healings were miracles.
But last weekend, the panel, known by its French initials CMIL, decided that from now on it will rule only on whether healing cases were "remarkable," leaving it to the church to decide whether they are miracles, panel secretary Dr. Patrick Theillier said.
"It's a sort of rebellion, if you will, against laws that don't concern us—and shouldn't," he said by phone. "The medical corps must be independent of the ecclesiastic power."
The church relies on seven criteria devised in 1734 to decide miracle healing, such as the gravity of the ailment, the accuracy of an original medical diagnosis and the suddenness and durability of the healing.
But applying those so-called Lambertini criteria today is "almost always impossible," the Notre Dame of Lourdes Sanctuary said in a report.
The church last approved a miracle at Lourdes in 2005. Catholic officials said Anna Santaniello of Italy was taken to bathe in the spring in 1952 on a stretcher and came back on her own two feet, cured of severe heart disease and ailments that had left her unable to walk or speak properly.
The Lourdes committee is independent of the Vatican's miracle-vetting organization, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which investigates reports of miraculous cures as part of the church's saint-making process.
"Our congregation doesn't deny what Lourdes is doing but we do not recognize what they are doing," Rev. Peter Gumpel, a Jesuit who works with the Congregation, said in Rome. "Our procedures are much stricter."
He said he knew of no other shrine that had a similar miracle-making organization.
Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-miracle_04dec04,0,2628577....
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A Divine Case of Stomach Flu
A recent outbreak of a gastrointestinal norovirus (a severe stomach flu causing virus) claimed the lives of four elderly psychiatric patients in The Netherlands. Outbreaks like these are not uncommon, but the source of this particular outbreak might come as a surprise: the Roman Catholic pilgrimage town of Lourdes.
Negative-stain Transmission Electron Microscopy of a stool sample from an individual with gastroenteritis. The little rounded particles are noroviruses. The white bar equals 50 nanometers, which is 20,000 times smaller than a millimeter. (Image by F.P. Williams, U.S. EPA).
This story has not made its way into the media outside The Netherlands (yet?) but the story is buzzing [1] in the land of tulips, clogs, and marihuana. The virus infected fourteen individuals of a group of psychiatric patients while on a pilgrimage to the famous Catholic holy site in France. These patients, in turn, transmitted the disease to other patients and staff members of the psychiatric clinic. The local healthcare authorities instated several measures in a so-far successful attempt to quarantine the epidemic.
The American Center for Disease Control estimates that at least 50% of all foodborne outbreaks of gastroenteritis are linked to noroviruses. Although only a small percentage of norovirus outbreaks are waterborne, RNA of the virus has even been found in commercially available bottled European water. This all sounds alarming, but like with most gastrointestinal infectious organisms, healthy adults are not at risk. However, besides attracting physically healthy Catholics, Lourdes is also visited by many people who are more likely to suffer from severe narovirus infections.
Ever since Our Lady of Lourdes — thought to be Virgin Mary herself! — allegedly revealed herself on several occasions to a 14-year old girl, Lourdes is a holy site in the minds of many a Catholic. Because the local spring is said to have healing properties, Lourdes attracts many people hoping for a miraculously cure of whatever ails them. This year also marks the 150th anniversary of the apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes. This jubilee was reason enough for a recent papal visit to the sanctuary. These significant events probably lured even more believers to Lourdes, and among them are obviously many sick and elderly individuals.
The Roman Catholic Church has confirmed 67 miraculous cures in Lourdes. Carl Sagan calculated that the chance of a spontaneous remission was higher than to be miraculously healed of the cancer at Lourdes.
Lourdes is a place were many people congregate in close proximity; among them the elderly and people in poor health. Therefore it is not surprising, from a rational, scientific point of view, that a place like Lourdes can be a reservoir for noroviruses. Indeed, the link between Lourdes and the norovirus seems to be going back for at least several years. But from a religious perspective, you have to wonder why a benevolent God permits a potentially lethal disease to spread from the consecrated grounds of His sanctuary at Lourdes, a place where He purportedly breaks the natural laws to heal the sick.
Ironically enough, in a world in which many people believe in divine medical interventions, the Holy Trinity opts for divine medical infections instead.
http://www.stereodax.com/2008/10/a-divine-case-of-stomach-flu/
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