Show Me.

I mentioned in my previous post that I'm a practicing Catholic so therefore, a "believer" in a higher power. However, I also have to admit that as much as I want to believe things and have faith, I tend to be quite skeptical. I guess it just runs in the family. I wasn't brought up going to church and most members of my immediate family are atheists. I, on the other hand, have always had some interest in the super natural. I was always searching for some sign of God's existence. But even when I'd get a "sign", I'd end up second guessing it. I guess you could call me a doubting Thomas. A friend told me once they saw someone walk away without their crutches after a healing Mass and my first reaction is "nah, that was set up."

For the Catholic Church, the process of investigating alleged apparitions, medical miracles, visionaries and the like is pretty thorough. Sometimes they could be downright oppositional to any claims of visions or miracles. They even had what used to be a "devil's advocate" who was appointed to disprove any claims of the miraculous. Sort of like a D.A.or Agent Skully.

Pope John Paul II did away with that and I kind of wish he didn't. But nonetheless, they're still pretty thorough. Of the many places that have a lot of "activity" going on, where people are getting cured of incurable diseases or seeing the sun spin around or mass witnesses to apparitions, only a small percentage qualify for a full investigation and then only a small percentage of those get "approved."

Lourdes is a prime example of this. From the Marian Newsletter...

In the last one hundred years, over 6,500 individuals have reported cures to the Medical Bureau. Of these, at least 2,500 cases are considered truly remarkable, but they lack some requirement needed to allow them to advance to the next stage--witnesses, evidence, lack of agreement on the nature of the ailment. In the last twenty years, there have been reports of about twenty cases of extraordinary cures or healings, about one a year. Mr. Bély's healing is the 66th cure occurring at Lourdes which has been officially recognized by ecclesiastical authorities. The recognition by church authorities has been a feature of Lourdes for a total of sixty- three years of its history. 

But there will be many extraordinary cases that haven't had official Church approval that I will cover. Some are modern day so they just haven't gotten around to investigating the claim or they're still gathering evidence.

The Catholic Church is notorious for moving very slowly. They can take centuries in some cases.  So for the skeptics out there, no matter what you think of the Catholic Church with all the scandals and such, come with an open mind that if they have officially recognized something of the supernatural as legitimate, it's worth looking into yourself. They tend to be skeptics also and employ the help of doctors, scientist, forensic labs, follow up, witness testimony ect... It actually starts looking like an episode of CSI.

For more on Lourdes, visit here.  It is definitely recommended reading.