Posted on: Tuesday, February 15, 2005
Vatican takes closer look at Father Damien miracle
Advertiser Staff
The Rev. Emilio Vega Garcia, postulator for the cause of Father Damien, is in town this week to begin a tribunal that will reinvestigate a miracle upon which Damien's cause for sainthood is based.
Patrick Downes, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Honolulu, said the tribunal likely will take several weeks while the testimony of doctors and witnesses are taken.
Damien was beatified in 1995, which gives him the title "blessed." Another substantiated miracle is needed for him to become a saint.
The plan is to re-interview witnesses and send the results back to Rome.
Downes said the tribunal is a matter of gathering more information the Vatican wants, to move along the process of sainthood.
Last month, Roman Catholic officials said the sainthood case for the Kalaupapa missionary was delayed because the miraculous cure of an O'ahu woman's cancer attributed to Damien may also have had divine intervention from another source. The woman, whose cancerous tumor reportedly regressed suddenly after prayers to Damien, is still alive, but her name has not been released.
Father Damien
