Don't let 'miracles' trump science

By: Michael Kinsley
Politico.com
January 19, 2011

The Roman Catholic Church has either a very good or a very bad sense of humor. The Vatican has announced that the late Pope John Paul II will be beatified on May 1. Beatification is sort of a halfway house on the way to full sainthood. The investigation, if it proceeds smoothly, will have been the fastest beatification on record — six years, from his death to the finish, edging out the previous record holder, Mother Teresa, by just a few days.

When he died in 2005, 3 million people at the funeral chanted “Santo Subito,” or “Sainthood Now” — not unlike at late diplomat Richard Holbrooke’s funeral last week in Washington. But rules are rules, as nobody knows better than the Catholic Church. John Paul II’s successor, Pope Benedict XVI, waived the traditional requirement of a five-year waiting period before starting the process. But he could not waive the main requirement for beatification, which is one certified miracle performed by the would-be saint — sainthood requires two miracles.

Some might consider bringing down the Soviet Union something of a miracle. Or maybe running the best school systems in America. But that’s not what the rules mean. They mean an old-fashioned abracadabra-type of miracle, such as appearing as a vision before a Catholic businessman as he is about to perform an act of illegal insider trading or ridding an entire major sports team of athlete’s foot.

In this case, John Paul II wasted no time. Once he got to heaven, he immediately got to work. He hadn’t been dead more than two months before he cured a French nun of Parkinson’s disease. You thought Parkinson’s was incurable? So did I. And I have it, as did John Paul II in his last years. But apparently not — if you know whom to pray to. Sister Marie Simon-Pierre of the Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Maternity Wards prayed to John Paul II. Then she woke up one morning, two months after the pope had died, and all of her symptoms were gone. According to the AP story, from all appearances, she remains symptom-free.

(More here.)

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