A recent exchange of correspondence about Lourdes has widened into a more general discussion about the validity or otherwise of certain recorded miracles.
If I may, I’d like to return to the original point, which was the link between Lourdes and miracles.
I’ve been to Lourdes on some 13 or 14 occasions; the Domain, or Sanctuary, is a wonderful place for believers to visit; most pilgrims simply seek some spiritual comfort and inspiration; a few go in the hope of miraculous cure of terrible conditions.
Non believers question the possible validity of the 65 or so declared miraculous cures over the past 150 years.
As a physician, I have copies of the medical evidence submitted in support of the successful claims to miraculous cure. They represent a tiny minority of the cases investigated.
Medical grounds for declaring a cure are extraordinarily tough; medical evidence is examined by several layers of lay medical expertise over a prolonged period of time. There has to be incontrovertible evidence of incurable disease, which disappears entirely and not as a consequence of medical treatment; scan, X-ray and blood evidence has to be submitted, as well as serial examinations of the person concerned. No one who has seen the records can be in any doubt that these cases of cure are medically inexplicable. The question is “are they a result of a visit to the Lourdes Shrine”? That question is essentially metaphysical – it cannot be answered!
To give one example of the toughness of the process, I can provide some information (though limited by issues of medical confidentiality) about a case I was personally involved with as a pilgrim and as a doctor. An individual joined our pilgrimage some years ago seeking comfort, not cure. This person suffered from a terminal illness with perfectly obvious signs of the advanced stages of a serious medical disorder; treatment for the condition had been extensive and prolonged and had been abandoned some six years previously. The person concerned was in great pain for quite evident reasons. We became friends and, on a whim, decided to take the waters and my new friend, just because of an innate wish to “try anything once”, ate the grass, just as Mary is said to have told Bernadette to do all those years ago.
Our pilgrimage ended and we parted company at the airport. Forty-eight hours later, I was summoned to Somerset to see this person as there had been some sort of experience which was described as a “vision” and all the symptoms and signs had disappeared. I approached the house with some scepticism but was astonished to find that, inexplicably, the pain was gone, and physical medical signs, which had been perfectly compatible with the extensive MRI scan evidence over the years, and which could never, ever, be mimicked by any great actor, had gone. Much excitement followed, but, crucially, serial MRI scans since that date have shown that the illness is still entirely present; the pilgrim has been seen by a number of specialists all over the UK, none of whom has been able to even begin to explain the transformation.
Some eight years later, the pilgrim still comes with us every year, but as a helper, not a sick person. The case was examined by the relevant Lourdes medical authorities and refused, because, despite the external robust health of the pilgrim, the illness is still present. The pilgrim is happy to refer to it as a “little miracle” as are the rest of the family and friends.
Is it a miracle? Does it matter whether it is or not?
To those who denigrate Lourdes, I suggest they visit with an open mind.