Saint Teresa – Waiting for a “Scientific” Miracle?

“Mother Teresa's sainthood is just one miracle away” says a headline in today’s Gulf News.

I have no comments on that. To anoint or not anoint the nun a saint is the Church’s prerogative and all indications are that they will do it sooner than later. However, one finds it difficult to understand why it is hard for them to confirm a second miracle.

“One more miracle has to happen for the official confirmation of Mother's sainthood. It should be a medical miracle that defies human explanation” says Sr. Nirmala, who is the successor to Mother Teresa of Calcutta.

Dictionary definitions of the word clearly say that a “miracle” is either “an extraordinary event manifesting divine intervention in human affairs” (http://www.merriam-webster.com ) or “an event that appears to be contrary to the laws of nature and is regarded as an act of God” (Microsoft® Encarta 2004 Dictionary). Of course, the divine intervention in this case is supposed to be performed by the nun who died ten years ago.

A miracle by definition cannot be explained by science. Why then the good sister goes on to add, supposedly with a straight face, “a miracle is studied by the doctors and the entire process is very scientific. Even if it is reported in Kolkata, the case goes to Rome. The theologians decide after a study by doctors". Why sister, why do you need the authenticity of science to validate a miracle that cannot be proved by definition?

Mother Teresa had already performed a “miracle” that was validated by Rome in a very scientific process!! That miracle occurred in 1998, exactly on the first anniversary of the nun’s death. Monica Besra, a tribal lady in a small village called Dangram, some 740 km northeast of Calcutta, was suffering from abdominal pain apparently caused by a tumor. The tumor vanished, when she applied a medallion with the image of the nun. In October 2002, the Vatican recognized the miracle, after a “due diligence” study by its doctors and theologians! And thus devised a simple cure for cancerous tumors!

However, an article published in Time (What's Mother Teresa Got to Do with It? - October 24, 2002) contradicts the miracle claim. It quotes Monica's husband Seiku Murmu saying that his wife was cured by the doctors and not by any miracle. “He concedes that the locket was part of the story of Monica's ordeal but says no one should suppose there was a cause-and-effect relationship between it and the cure. He continues ‘My wife did feel less pain one night when she used the locket, but her pain had been coming and going. Then she went to the doctors, and they cured her.’ Monica still believes in the miracle but admits that she did go to see doctors at the state-run Balurghat Hospital. ‘I took the medicines they gave me, but,’ she insists, ‘the locket gave me complete relief from the pain’.”

What did the doctors who treated Monica at the state-run hospital say? The Time report continues “Dr. Tarun Kumar Biswas and Dr. Ranjan Mustafi, who treated Monica over several months, say their patient indeed had a lump in her abdomen, but it was not a full-grown tumor. ‘She responded to our treatment steadily,’ says Mustafi. Monica's medical records contain sonograms, prescriptions and physicians' notes that could conceivably help prove whether science or the icon worked the cure. But the records are missing. Monica says Sister Betta of the Missionaries of Charity took them away two years ago. ‘It's all with her,’ says Monica. A call to Sister Betta, who has been reassigned to another post of the Charity, produced a ‘no comment.’ Balurghat Hospital officials say the Catholic order has been pressuring them to say Monica's cure was miraculous. Calls to the office of Sister Nirmala, produced no comment as well.”

A well documented and scientifically validated miracle indeed! If you are naïve enough to believe the story, the Vatican now has a miraculous cure for cancerous tumors. They must be wondering why oncologists are not prescribing medallions of the nun for their patients to hold three times a day near the tumor. Have faith, the tumor will dissolve in no time! Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy are passé!

Am I dreaming or what? Why are newspapers like Gulf News prominently carrying such nonsense?

If this can happen in the 21st century and people are gullible enough to believe it, imagine what the church could do when most of the world was illiterate!