An official from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome formally broke the seal on 'miracle' documentation
By Patrick Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
An official from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, on Sept. 11, formally broke the seal and opened the boxes containing the papers documenting an unexplained healing which the Diocese of Honolulu submitted earlier this year as the miracle needed for the canonization of Blessed Damien de Veuster.
According to the postulator of the cause, Sacred Hearts Father Emilio Vega Garcia, who had brought the documents to Rome in April and who was present at their opening, the act took “no more than five minutes” and also involved counting the pages of the two duplicate official copies.
The papers, 190 pages in all, consisted of documentation and testimony regarding the “miraculous” cure of a Honolulu woman with cancer by the patient herself, her doctors, relatives and counselors, collected through a formal diocesan tribunal process.
The documentation process was completed April 16 and the papers sealed in a box the same day during a ceremony at St. Stephen Diocesan Center. Father Garcia then delivered the boxes to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints where it was presented on April 24, and acknowledged and filed on April 28 under the number 218-78/03.
The opening of the box six months later was the first official action regarding the miracle case since it was filed.
Also witnessing the opening were Sacred Hearts Father Bruno Zuchowski, and Sacred Hearts Sisters Teresa Egüez, Genevieve Le Pape and Chantal Chambon.
According to Father Garcia, with thousands of worthy candidates for canonization, sainthood causes often proceed more quickly the more worldwide interest is given to the cause and the subject for canonization.
When a potential saint is made more visible through prayers, pilgrimages, secular and religious awareness, letters, published material and other means, it helps the cause.