Greg Daly
The Irish doctor on the Lourdes International Medical Committee has said it was “truly amazing” to be present when the shrine’s 70th formally-recognised miraculous cure was announced.
Sr Bernadette Moriau of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus began suffering from sciatic nerve pain in 1966 at the age of 27, and over time developed related ailments and became partially paralysed.
In July 2008 she returned home from Lourdes in, if anything, a worse condition than before, but on July 11, while in Adoration in her community chapel at the same time as the Eucharistic Procession was taking place in Lourdes, she experienced a sensation of laxity and warmth, and felt as though an interior voice was asking her to remove her various supports.
Knowledge
Following medical examinations and several meetings, the Lourdes International Medical Committee ruled in 2016 that the cure had been “unexplained according to current scientific knowledge”.
Dr Michael Moran told The Irish Catholic that it is “really unusual” to find a medical case that meets the Church’s standards for ruling on whether cures really are inexplicable.
“The stringency of the code followed by the Comité Médical International de Lourdes (CMIL) is such that only the most rigorously assessed cases can be determined to be inexplicable,” he said. “The vote for this case took place in 2016, and was almost unanimous.
“The Committee were presented with robust medical evidence, a clear account of events, and were satisfied as to the permanence of the cure.”
Commenting on the “palpable energy and joy” in Lourdes’ Basilica of St Pius X when the Bishops of Lourdes and Beauvais declared the cure miraculous, Dr Moran said: “This was the first case considered by CMIL that I was asked to vote on, and so to be able to be present in the Basilica for the announcement and subsequent press conference was truly amazing.
“I suddenly felt very privileged to have my role in Lourdes, and feeling the atmosphere in the underground Basilica made me feel how relevant and important Lourdes, and the Catholic faith, is in the modern world,” he continued.
“With this came a renewed vigour for my work in Ireland to support Lourdes pilgrimages, and I look forward to all that 2018 will bring.”