Authentication of a Cure at Lourdes
A ZENIT DAILY DISPATCH
Authentication of a Cure at Lourdes
SCIENCE SURRENDERS TO THE INEXPLICABLE
Jean-Pierre Bely Was Instantly Cured of Multiple Sclerosis
LOURDES 11 FEB 99 (ZENIT).
Lourdes witnessed once again another miracle. At 10 a.m. in the underground basilica, during the solemn celebration of the World Day of the Sick, Bishop Jacques Perrier of Lourdes and Tarbes, officially proclaimed the ecclesiastical approval of a miracle which took place two years ago in the grotto and was meticulously verified by the Office of Medical Verification.
It is the story of Jean-Pierre Bely, who was then 51 years old, married, the father of two children, who was suffering from a severe form of multiple sclerosis. He was cured instantly, completely, and lastingly during a pilgrimage to Lourdes.
Jean-Pierre Bely's story is recounted in the 'Lourdes Magazine' (http://www.lourdes-france.com), a publication of the Lourdes Shrine. Bely was born on August 24, 1936. By profession, he was an anesthesia and intensive-care nurse. In 1972 he began to suffer growing neurological incapacity, which eventually was diagnosed as multiple sclerosis. By 1984 he was walking with a cane, and in 1985 he required a wheelchair. Two years later, he was in a devastating state: bedridden, he received a 100% invalidity pension and an allowance for a third person to look after him.
In October, 1987, Jean-Pierre Bely went on pilgrimage to Lourdes. After celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation in the sick room on October 8, Bely received the Sacrament of the Sick the next day during Mass in the Rosary Square. He was part of the French Rosary Pilgrimage. All of a sudden, he was overcome by a powerful sense of interior liberation and peace, something he had never experienced before.
On Friday, October 9 at midday, while lying in the sick room he experienced a sense of cold which grew stronger and became painful only to give way to a subsequent feeling of warmth which grew in intensity. Bely sat on the edge of his bed and was able to move his arms. The following night, although in a deep sleep, he woke up suddenly and discovered he could walk -- for the first time, since 1984.
At the end of the pilgrimage, Bely traveled to the station in his wheelchair, so as not to appear different from his "companions in sickness." But by the time he reached the train, he decided to enter alone and remain seated during the return journey to his home town of Angouleme. He had regained the complete use of his physical faculties, and the medical reports showed no trace of illness.
Jean-Pierre Bely came to declare his cure to the Medical Bureau of Lourdes the following year, on Thursday, October 6. Since then, he has been seen annually by the doctors and, by his neurologist and the head of the Department of Neurology of the University Hospital of Poitiers.
On June 17, 1992 a first consultation was carried out at the request of the International Medical Committee of Lourdes (CMIL), the second level of examination at the shrine. The conclusion: "such a cure is not just unusual but inexplicable." In November, 1992, the Committee called for a further two-year delay to respect the criteria of a definitive cure.
After additional examinations and consultations, on November 14, 1998, following a majority vote of the members of CMIL, the following statement was issued. "It is possible to conclude, with a good margin of probability, that Mr. Bely suffered an organic infection of the multiple sclerosis type in a severe and advanced stage of which the sudden cure during a pilgrimage to Lourdes corresponds with an unusual and inexplicable fact to all the knowledge of science. It is impossible for medical science to say anything more today. It is for the religious authorities, however, to make a pronouncement on the other dimensions of this cure." The document was written in Lourdes on February 9, 1999 by Dr. Patrick Thellier, Resident Doctor and Doctor-in-Charge of the Medical Bureau.
Later, Bishop of Angulema, Claude Dagens, wrote: "In the name of the Church, I publicly recognize the authentic character of the cure that Mr. Jean-Pierre Nely received in Lourdes on October 9, 1987. This immediate and complete cure is a personal gift of God to this person and an effective sign of Christ the Savior through the intercession of Our Lady of Lourdes." ZE99021108
This article has been selected from the ZENIT Daily Dispatch
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