Topics: John the Baptist:Unborn Witness to Christ....Father Emil Kapaun: Vatican to Continue....Relic of St. Therese: Will Travel to Space....St. Anthony: Brief i.e., "Letter"....Litany of the Week: For the Faithful Departed....His Holiness: Another Motu Proprio This Summer?....Polish Catholics: Auschwitz Survivors....Vatican: Cardinal Newman Miracle Accepted
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John the Baptist, Unborn Witness to Christ
Human Life International e-Newsletter
The touching story of the two unborn children who were present at the Visitation should give us a reason to rejoice with Elizabeth and Mary at the dawning of our salvation. While the mothers basked in the overwhelming grace of the moment, the older of the two children was already working for our salvation in the way decreed for him by the Almighty from all eternity. That little baby was announcing the coming of the Savior even from the womb!
One has to marvel at the life of St. John the Baptist whose feast we celebrate each year on June 24th. Perhaps we take him for granted because his story is so familiar to us, but his vocation to holiness is beyond comparison with any other saint in history. With the exception of Jesus' most holy Mother, never has there been a human being so perfectly united to the Person of Christ than John. He was so perfect a man that Jesus Himself said that there was "no man born of woman greater than John." Great men of the world exalt themselves over their subjects as a way to assert their grandeur; yet, John's greatness was precisely in lowering himself to the depths of the earth (i.e., the Dead Sea, geographically the world's lowest point on land) and turning the attention of men away from himself onto Another. What worldly man does that? A man who lives in the desert and wears camel hair garments is hardly going to be accepted among the movers-and-shakers of society, but it was this greatest of men who said that he actually had to decrease if he were to fulfill his essential mission. Truly John's was a life of striking paradoxes which, when examined closely, point out the holiness of the man whose whole existence was to bear witness to Holiness Himself.
John's greatest witness was not in his words, however. It was in his actions. We know of only two actions outside of his baptizing and preaching that give us a window into this man's pure soul: his joyful leap in the womb of Elizabeth and his ultimate act of self-sacrifice in martyrdom. In birth and death he was the Lord's, as in every other moment of his existence. His pre-natal rejoicing at the Christ Child wordlessly proclaimed that all children, no matter the circumstances of their conception or birth, are unqualified blessings to us, joyful additions to the human family of which God never repents. We have the testimony of the "greatest man born of woman" as our witness to the sanctity of each and every human life!
John also valiantly embraced the multiple crosses of his life: penitence, suffering, imprisonment and beheading before the Perfect Sacrifice of the Cross was consummated. No wonder the scriptures tell us that even the wicked Herod, "felt the attraction of his words." John had that rare integrity of life that filled his words with grace. It was his life, his appearance, his humility, his mission and his gift of self that make John attractive to all generations, especially those who suffer injustice for the cause of righteousness.
I have no doubt that if John the Baptist were alive today he would be standing in front of abortion clinics witnessing to the unborn Christ in each child, calling people to account for their promiscuity, challenging the powers that keep this immoral industry in business, healing the wounded souls victimized by abortion, washing men clean of their sins that lead to death, teaching us to find joy even in our suffering and ready to lay down his own life so that others could live.
Truly there is no greater man born of woman than John the Baptist. He is the Unborn Witness to Christ who shows us the way out of the culture of death; if only we will listen to the silent eloquence of that little baby leaping in his mother's womb.
Sincerely,
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer,
President, Human Life International
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Father Emil Kapaun: Investigator for Vatican Finds Enough to Continue
The Wichita Eagle By Roy Wenzl
The Vatican found enough evidence of a miracle in the survival of Chase Kear of Colwich that it intends to keep studying his survival, with an eye toward declaring it an official miracle, church officials say.
Declaring it a miracle would help determine whether Father Emil Kapaun of Pilsen will be canonized as a saint of the Catholic Church.
Andrea Ambrosi, a lawyer and investigator for the Vatican, visited family members and doctors for two Wichita-area families on Friday who believe the survival of their children during nearly lethal medical crises recently should qualify as miracles.
One of them involved Chase Kear, a 20-year-old Colwich athlete severely injured in October.
The Rev. John Hotze, judicial vicar for the Wichita diocese, is not allowed to say who or what families are being investigated for miracles. But he said there was one other "alleged miracle" in the Wichita area that Ambrosi studied during his time here.
With both families, Hotze said, Ambrosi met with the doctors involved and studied medical reports and X-rays.
"Afterward, the Vatican investigator said that in years of investigating miracles, he had never seen doctors who made such a compelling case for miracles occurring," Hotze said.
Ambrosi came as a skeptical questioner to determine whether thousands of prayers made to Kapaun by Kear's family and friends might have created a miracle. He met with Chase Kear at the family's home in Colwich.
"He had a nice long talk with Chase, and I didn't get the feeling that he thought this was all a lot of malarkey," Chase's mother, Paula, said Monday.
Ambrosi also met with Chase Kear's doctors, including his neurosurgeon, Raymond Grundmeyer, Hotze said.
Kear survived a catastrophic head injury in October 2008 during pole vaulting practice at Hutchinson Community College. His family said they believe his life was saved by his neurosurgeon and other doctors, but also by thousands of prayers to Kapaun.
Grundmeyer, who operated to save Kear's life, said in a brief interview with The Eagle earlier this month that he considers Kear's survival a miracle.
If the miracle is proven, it will significantly advance the chances that the church will declare Kapaun a saint, decades after he died a hero in a North Korean prison camp in 1951. The church requires miracles to elevate a person to sainthood.
Hotze has investigated Kapaun's proposed sainthood for eight years, which is only a fraction of the time the church has been considering whether to elevate Kapaun to sainthood.
American soldiers came out of prisoner-of-war camps in 1953 with incredible stories about Kapaun's heroism and faith. They said that in the fierce winter of 1950 and 1951, when 1,200 out of 3,000 American prisoners starved to death or died of illness in Camp 5 along the Yalu River, Kapaun kept hundreds of survivors alive by stealing food and by force of will.
Across Kansas, his memory is kept alive at Wichita's Kapaun Mount Carmel High School, in his hometown of Pilsen and elsewhere.
Only two American-born people — St. Elizabeth Ann Seton and St. Katharine Drexel — have ever been canonized as saints. For sainthood, the church will require at least one and possibly two miracles be proven on Kapaun's behalf, depending on whether he died a martyr, something the church is also trying to determine. Several soldiers say the Chinese prison camp guards deliberately starved Kapaun to death to stop the religious services he conducted in defiance of camp rules.
Kapaun, a priest in the Wichita diocese, was born near Pilsen in 1916 and volunteered for Army chaplain duty in the Korean War.
Kapaun was assigned to the U.S. Army's Eighth Cavalry regiment, which was surrounded and overrun by the Chinese army in North Korea in October and November 1950. He stayed behind with the wounded when the Army retreated. He allowed his own capture, then risked death by preventing Chinese executions of wounded Americans too injured to walk.
Reach Roy Wenzl at 316-268-6219 or rwenzl@wichitaeagle.com.
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Astronaut to Carry Relic of St. Therese to Space
Catholic News Agency
Rome, Italy, Jun 25, 2009 / 11:57 am (CNA).- U.S. astronaut Ronald Garan, who brought a relic of St. Therese of Lisieux with him on the Discovery space shuttle during his last trip to space, attended Pope Benedict XVI’s Wednesday audience this week and was greeted by the Pontiff.
In 2011, Garan plans to bring another relic of the saint with him on a mission to the international space station.
According to L’Osservatore Romano, the idea of bringing “a relic came to fruition because of his spiritual bond with the Carmelites of New Caney, Texas.”
Garan and his family founded the Manna association, a NASA entity which has developed a system for generating potable water for Rwanda and has provided solar panels for schools and hospitals in the country.
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In the 13th century, a Portugese woman who'd been demonically oppressed resolved to do the unthinkable by taking her own life by drowning herself in the Tagus River. On her way to the river, she passed a shrine erected in honor of the great orator and miracle-worker, St. Anthony of Padua. She stopped to pray, one last time. As she prayed, she saw St. Anthony standing before her, saying, "'Arise woman, and take this paper, which will free you from the molestations of the Evil One." Then he gave her a parchment inscribed with what is now known as the "Brief (i.e., "Letter") of St. Anthony," and she was now free from demonic oppression and the desire to do away with herself.
News of this miracle spread, even to the King who asked the woman for the Brief. He placed it with the Crown Jewels of Portugal, which was fine for the King, but bad for the woman. After the Brief was no longer with her, she began to weaken and lapse, so the King made a copy for her that restored her to her healed state. Other copies of the Brief were spread to help the faithful fight the Evil One and remind them that Christ has conquered.
The Brief consists of a depiction of a Cross, and words which, forming a rhyme in the Latin, hearken back to Apocalypse 5:5, "And one of the ancients said to me: Weep not: behold the lion of the tribe of Juda, the root of David, hath prevailed to open the book and to loose the seven seals thereof." The words of St. Anthony's Brief are:
Ecce Crucem Domini,
Fugite, partes adversae,
Vicit Leo de Tribu Juda,
Radix David, alleluia.
English version:
Behold the Cross of the Lord!
Flee ye adversaries!
The Lion of the Tribe of Juda,
The Root of David has conquered, alleluia!
The exorcizing proclamation is carried on the person or placed in homes. It is also used in more specific situations, such as that encountered by the French seamen who found their ship tossed by an angry sea during a storm off Brittany's coast in 1708. One of the men wrote the words of St. Anthony's Brief, and threw it into the sea with a prayer to the Saint. Immediately, the seas calmed and the sailors were saved.
The words of this Brief are good ones to use when feeling tempted by evil, oppressed by demons, and in general spiritual warfare.
As an aside, part of these words from the Apocalypse are also inscribed at the top of the obelisk that sits in St. Peter's Square. The obelisk had been in Rome since A.D. 37, set up in what is believed by many to have been the site of the divisional wall (spina) of Caligula's Circus, where Nero's massacre of Christians took place in A.D. 67. Pope Sixtus V moved the obelisk to its present position in a move that
...celebrated the triumph of the Faith of Christ, St Peter and the apostles over pagan superstition. The proximity of the obelisk to the old basilica had always been resented as something of a provocation, almost as a slight to the Christian religion. It had stood there like a false idol, as it were vaingloriously, on what was believed to be the center of the accursed circus where the early Christians and St Peter had been put to death. Its sides, then as now, were graven with dedications to Augustus and Tiberius. On its summit was a bronze sphere believed to contain the ashes of Julius Caesar. When taken down, the sphere proved to be solid. Nevertheless, Sixtus had a bronze cross put in its place (in 1740, after repairs, a piece of the True Cross was inserted in one of the arms). Solemnly the pope had the heathen spirit of the obelisk exorcised. 'Impio cultu dicatum' he carved upon the base as a reminder of what the needle once represented, and 'Ecce Crux Domini fugite partes adverase' in proud defiance of Luther and the reformed Churches.
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Litany of the Week
Litany of the Faithful Departed
Recently while visiting a cemetery I found, in my mother's old 1950's Marian Missal, a beautiful Litany for the Faithful Departed which I prayed for my parents, my relatives and all lying in repose. Note that the missal stated that this litany was for private use only (and is not one of the official litanies). Ever since blog contributor Larry Bethel urged us to pray the Litany of Saints for Rogation Days (see Post #78) I have been fascinated with the different Litanies. I find them to be beautiful, meditative and edifying. Venite Missa Est! will feature the various litanies over the coming weeks. Enjoy (and pray!)-------------------------
Litany of the Faithful Departed
for private use only
Lord have mercy on us.
Lord have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Christ have mercy on us.
Christ hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
God the Father of heaven, have mercy on the souls of the faithful departed.
God the Son, Redemmer of the world, have mercy on the souls of the faithful departed.
God the Holy Ghost, have mercy on the souls of the faithful departed.
Holy Trinity, one God, have mercy on the souls of the faithful departed.
Holy Mary, pray for the souls of the faithful departed.
Holy Mother of God, &c.
Holy Virgin of virgins,
St. Michael,
All ye angels and archangels,
All ye orders of blessed spirits,
St. John the Baptist,
St. Joseph,
All ye holy patriarchs and prophets,
St. Peter,
St. Paul,
St. John,
All ye holy apostles and evangelists,
St. Stephen,
St. Lawrence,
All ye holy martyrs,
St. Gregory,
St. Ambrose,
St. Augustine,
St. Jerome,
All ye holy bishops and confessors,
All ye holy doctors,
All ye holy priests and levites,
All ye holy monks and hermits,
St. Mary Magdalene,
St. Catherine,
St. Barbara,
All ye holy virgins and widows,
All ye saints of God,
Be merciful, spare them O Lord.
Be merciful, graciously hear us O Lord.
From all evil, O Lord, deliver them.
From Thy wrath, &c.
From the rigor of Thy justice,
From the power of the devil,
From the gnawing worm of conscience,
From long-enduring sorrow,
From eternal flames,
From intolerable cold,
From horrible darkness,
From dreadful weeping and wailing,
Through Thy admirable conception,
Through Thy Holy Nativity,
Through Thy most sweet name,
Through Thy baptism and holy fasting,
Through Thy most profound humiliation,
Through Thy prompt obedience,
Through Thine infinite love,
Through Thy sorrow and anguish,
Through Thy bloody sweat,
Through Thy bonds,
Through Thy scourging,
Through Thy crowning with thorns,
Through Thy carrying of the cross,
Through Thy most cruel death,
Through Thy five holy wounds,
Through Thy most bitter cross and passion,
Through Thy holy Resurrection,
Through Thine admirable Ascension,
Through the coming of the Holy Ghost, the Paraclete,
In the day of judgement,
We sinners, we beseech Thee, hear us.
Thou Who forgavest Magdalen and didst hearken to the prayer of the thief, &c.
Thou Who savest freely Thine elect,
Thou Who hast the keys of death and hell,
That Thou wouldst be pleased to deliver the souls of our parents, relations, friends, and benefactors from the pains of hell,
That Thou wouldst be pleased to have mercy on those whom no special remembrance is made on earth,
That Thou wouldst be pleased to grant them all the pardon and remission of their sins,
That Thou wouldst be pleased to fulfill all their desires,
That Thou wouldst be pleased to recieve them into the company of the blessed,
King of awful Majesty,
Son of God,
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Grant unto them rest.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Grant unto them rest.
Lamb of God, who takest away the sins of the world, Grant unto them rest everlasting.
Christ, hear us.
Christ, graciously hear us.
Lord, have mercy.
Christ, have mercy.
Lord, have mercy.
From the gates of hell,
Deliver their souls, O Lord.
O Lord hear my prayer.
And let my cry come unto thee.
Let us pray - O God, the Creator and Redeemer of all faithful, grant unto the souls of Thy servants departed the remission of all their sins; that, by pious supplication, they may obtain that pardon which they have always desired. Grant this, O God, Who livest and reignest for ever and ever. Amen.
O eternal God, Who besides the general precept of charity, hast commanded a particular respect to parents, kindred, and benefactors, grant, we beseech Thee, that, as they were the instruments by which Thy Providence bestowed on us our birth, education, and innumerable other blessings, so our prayers may be the means to obtain for them a speedy release from their excessive sufferings, and free admittance to Thine infinite joys. Through Christ Our Lord. Amen.
Eternal rest give them, O Lord.
And let perpetual light shine upon them.
May they rest in peace.
Amen.
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New Motu Proprio on the SSPX This Summer?
Catholic Church Conservation
From the paleo-left-liberal, more Tablet than the Tablet, French magazine Golias.
According to our information, and on the eve of the SSPX ordinations on 27 June in Germany, the Pope wishes to write a second motu proprio in the coming months. The document to be issued this time is not only about the liturgy in Latin, but a more comprehensive reintegration of the SSPX into the Church. This will mean demanding, of course, conditions, but also by engaging the whole Church in this process. Serious!
In other words, the bishops will no longer be entitled to express in a too overt manner open reluctantance and even less to slow the return of the traditionalists. One should understand that representatives of these currents regularly complain to the Pope posed about the obstacles placed to their reinstatement by the bishops and their entourage. Until now, Rome and the Ecclesia Dei commission have been bypassing bishops without, however, in general, openly disavow their views.
Thus, in 1988, the Commission regularised very quickly and in a very caring manner the Benedictine abbey of Barroux, without informing or consulting the Archbishop of Avignon at the time, Archbishop Raymond Bouchex. More recently, Rome proceeded in the same way with respect to the Institut du Bon Pasteur, without informing the Archbishop of Bordeaux, in whose Diocese it was located. Recently, another signal was given by the Vatican when restoring a traditional parish priest in dissent with his bishop in Calvados, just so as to remind the bishops. Following this Motu proprio, a bishop considered too reluctant to welcome the fundamentalists will certainly have his knuckles rapped.
The bishops will no longer be able to express their reservations
Benedict XVI and his advisers intend to enjoy the quiet summer to advance along the path of reconciliation. After the authorisation allowing celebration according to all the old liturgical books (Motu proprio of 2007), after the lifting of the excommunication of the four schismatic bishops ordained by Archbishop Lefebvre, a new stage is opening up, more delicate however: one on divisive theological ground in particular with regard to Vatican II and the Magisterium of the recent Popes. One should know that the Pope has chosen the new secretary of the International Theological Commission, the Dominican Father Charles Morerod, precisely because of his sensitivity towards traditionalist interlocutors. In fact Morerod is the author of a doctoral thesis submitted to the faculty of theology at the University of Freiburg, Switzerland, on the master general of the Dominicans, commentator on St Thomas Aquinas, Thomas de Vio Cajetan (1469-1534) and his polemic debate with Luther.
Father Morerod for theological agreement
But Father Morerod is especially noted for his work Tradition and Christian unity. Dogma is made a condition for the possibility of ecumenism (Word and Silence, Paris, 2005), and he kicks hard against more liberal ecumenism (fron theologians such as Fries, Rahner or Tillard) in emphasizing the essential nature of a true Catholic thought, which must be truly theological and philosophical.
Hence, it accentuates the difference between Catholicism and Protestantism in a way that does not displease the most "tradi" circles. The same Father Morerod sought to comb the thought of a British Liberal Protestant, John Hick and in which work he specifically attacks the relativist spirit. Oh, this reminds us of someone else ... the choice of Father Morerod is therefore not by chance! In very concrete terms, the Ecclesia Dei commission will report to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (cf. Golias Hebdo n ° 85). There was a question at one time of whether it should be joined to the Congregation for Divine Worship, but this would be to forget that the problem is not solely or primarily liturgical. The new Motu Proprio to come, which will be prepared by the principal drafter of the Motu proprio of 2007, Monsignor Nicola Bux, professor of theology at Bari and advisor of Joseph Ratzinger will justifies the importance accorded to the doctrine of the fundamentalist controversy. The role of Don Nicola cannot be stressed enough.
The Italian prelate Nicola Bux for the new Motu Proprio
Consultor to the Congregation for the doctrine of the faith and waiting for a promotion strategy, Msgr Bux, an Italian priest of 63 years is friendly and discreet, but frighteningly conservative and accurate in his argument, being the determined and tireless craftsman not only of moving towards the integrists but of a restoration of traditional Catholicism as a whole. He drafted the 2007 Motu Proprio on the Mass in Latin. In his latest book, released last October in Italy, The Reform of Benedict XVI, prefaced by Vittorio Messori, Msgr Bux said that rebuilding the essence of the "sacred and divine liturgy”, will not be done with the hands of humanity. Otherwise, it "would serve no purpose other than to represent himself and specifially it does not save the man or the world, it does not sanctify it." He is convinced that the Liturgy of Saint Pius V honours to a greater degree the sense of the sacred than that of Pope Paul VI. He criticizes also quite fiercely the reform named after the Montini, a true "decomposition" of the liturgy according to him, and exacerbating what the theologian Louis Bouyer called the "decomposition of Catholicism."
Indeed, Msgr Bux is not confined solely to the liturgical domain. He denounced the opening to the world that defiles the Christian mystery and censures the relaxed life of priests in particular with regard to private life (célibat. ..). He is also against the fundamental deviance according to him of contemporary theology, which uses an "anthropological turn" (which he also denounced, following Cornelio Fabro, in Karl Rahner). He counter-poses a new turning towards the theocentric and Christocentric as symbolized by the celebration back to the East, his back turned to the faithful. It is easy to imagine the content and tone of the Motu Proprio of the near future with such a writer. Cardinal William Levada, Prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, who besides health problems is distressed, frustrated and demoralized, no longer has the power to oppose such an ultra-conservative regression. Far from appearing as a defence of the Council, the Motu Proprio will propose a minimalist reading, erasing the new and challenging spirit. In sum, a council "in the spirit of tradition" as Archbishop Lefebvre recognized can be accepted! Is this still the Council whose importance Paul VI proclaimed in 1976 in the face of traditionalist dissent? Nothing is less certain.
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Polish Catholic Survivors Recall Day Auschwitz Began
NEWS from THE POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS
Brooklyn, N.Y. … June 14th was observed as Flag Day in America. In Poland, the date was remembered as the day in 1940 that Hitler and his Nazis opened the gate of Auschwitz to receive the first inmates – 728 Polish prisoners they transported from Tarnów, Poland.
Rev. Janusz Lipski of St. Hedwig’s Church in Floral Park and Chaplain of the Long Island Chapter of the Polish American Congress joined three former
Auschwitz prisoners to mark the infamous anniversary.
Mr. Kolodziejek was one of the earliest prisoners condemned to Auschwitz arriving there in August, 1940, just two months after the first transport of Poles. Mr. Preisler came in October, 1941 and Mr. Garczynski in 1943.
Mr. Kolodziejek was also one of the first prisoners to be used by Auschwitz doctors for human experiments.
By the time Auschwitz was liberated in 1945, Jews represented the largest group murdered there. Polish Christians were the second largest.
It was ironic that, just a week earlier, a Holocaust Memorial Park in Brooklyn honoring only Jews added five more groups as the other victims of the Holocaust: homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses, the disabled, political prisoners and Gypsies. Polish Catholics were disregarded.
That came as no surprise to Michael Preisler who helped form the
Holocaust Documentation Committee of the Polish American Congress because of repeated refusals to acknowledge the Polish and Catholic victims.
“Unfortunately, there’s an ugly anti-Polish and anti-Catholic bias that keeps on showing up among a lot of Holocaust writers and people in the media. They twist the Holocaust as a way to express their prejudice," he said.
From THE POLISH AMERICAN CONGRESS
HOLOCAUST DOCUMENTATION COMMITTEE
177 Kent St., Brooklyn, N.Y. 11222 – (718) 349-9689
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Cardinal Newman Miracle Accepted by Vatican
Catholic News Agency
London, England, Jun 22, 2009 / 05:32 pm (CNA).- The Holy See has recognized the miracle necessary for the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the nineteenth-century British theologian who left the Church of England to enter the Roman Catholic Church.
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints has attributed the cure of Jack Sullivan, a permanent deacon from the Archdiocese of Boston, to the intercession of Cardinal Newman. Sullivan, 70, works in both parish and prison ministry, and had suffered from “extremely severe spinal problems.”
Sullivan told The Times Online that he began praying to Cardinal Newman after learning of the favorable recommendation of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
“If it wasn’t for Cardinal Newman’s intercession … it would have been virtually impossible to complete my diaconate formation and be ordained for the Archdiocese of Boston,” said Sullivan. “Nor would I have been able to continue in my chosen profession as a magistrate in our court system to support my family.”
Sullivan says that he has experienced “a very deep sense of the reality of God’s love for each one of us, especially during times of immense difficulties and suffering.” He added, “I have developed a very real relationship with Cardinal Newman in frequent prayer and I try to pass on what marvelous gifts I have received to those I meet.”
Five doctors appointed to a medical commission by the Congregation voted unanimously in April 2009 that Sullivan’s cure had no medical explanation, the spokesman for the order founded by Cardinal Newman reports.
The Congregation is now working on a document about the life of Newman, to be presented to the Holy Father, who alone can sign the promulgation of the decree authorizing the miracle.
Once beatified, Newman will need one more miracle to be canonized a saint. It is currently unknown whether the beatification ceremony will take place in Rome or Westminster Cathedral in London.