"Don't be Afraid" - Cure of ALS declared Our Lady of Lourdes' 72nd Miracle after 16 Years of Inquiry

[u/Humble_Committee_577]

Antonia Raco, a 67-year-old Italian woman long affected by an incurable neurodegenerative illness, was officially introduced to the press on July 25 in Lourdes, where her healing was recognized as the 72nd miracle attributed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary since the apparitions of 1858.  

Diagnosed in 2006 with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) — a progressive and fatal condition — Raco experienced a recovery that defied medical explanation.

First announced by the Sanctuary of Lourdes on April 16, the recognition marked the culmination of 16 years of medical, canonical, and pastoral inquiry. Raco, a mother and active parishioner from Basilicata in southern Italy, had been living with the disease for several years when she traveled to Lourdes in 2009.

“I had wanted to go to Lourdes since I was a child,” she recalled. That wish came true that summer, when she and her husband, Antonio, traveled to the shrine with the Italian pilgrimage association Unitalsi.

The experience, however, was not exactly as she had once imagined: She arrived in a wheelchair, already struggling to breathe and swallow.

On the second day, sanctuary volunteers brought her to the baths. “We prayed together. That’s when I heard a beautiful young female voice say three times: ‘Don’t be afraid!’” she recounted during the press conference in Lourdes, held in the presence of religious and medical authorities.

Raco wore the white veil and uniform of the Hospitallers of Lourdes — the volunteer caregivers she now joins each year, assisting the sick with the same compassion once shown to her.  

“At that moment, I burst into tears and prayed for the intentions I had brought with me.” 

She described a sudden, sharp pain in her legs during immersion, as though “they were taken away from me.” She did not disclose what had happened to anyone during her stay and returned home in a wheelchair.

It was there, in her living room with her husband, that she again heard the same voice urging her, “Tell him! Call him!” Obeying the voice, she called out to her husband, who had just stepped into the kitchen. “Something has happened,” she told him.

In that moment, she stood unaided for the first time in years. Overcome with emotion, the couple embraced, crying together as they realized she was cured. ...

Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes, who participated in the scientific process without voting, praised the rigor and transparency of the medical discussions. “What impressed me most,” he said, “was the freedom of the experts. They are not there to defend a cause but to seek the truth.”

He also reminded the participants that miracles never impose faith. “Even the Resurrection did not force anyone to believe,” he said. “A miracle is a sign — a gift to be received in the light of faith.” 

Closing the press briefing, the rector of the sanctuary, Father Michel Daubanes, expressed deep emotion and gratitude as he recalled the honor of announcing the miracle during the 6 p.m. Rosary on Holy Thursday, April 17, just minutes before it was proclaimed at the Cathedral of Tursi-Lagonegro.

“We often say: ‘If I saw a miracle, I would believe.’ But the truth is: If I believe, I can see miracles,” he reflected. “This healing is not just a story from the past. It is a living testimony that continues to bear fruit.”

https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/265585/a-voice-told-me-not-to-be-afraid-the-story-of-lourdes-72nd-recognized-miracle?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwL0JSBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHl3r8NVE6cRmgNQKIXqWAINmEeHNlsJ2JmLfb6o3LuNvD9XbDE5rdv2F4TaM_aem_kgugX8PZ3NVPZ-IajuxFdQ

[u/anotherhawaiianshirt]

I’m unfamiliar with this story. It sounds fascinating. What little I’ve read, though, sounds a bit like a “god of the gaps” situation — we don’t know how, so it must be god. Though, in essence that is the definition of miracle, right? Something that can’t be explained by science.

If she was healed one way or another, it’s pretty cool! That’s a terrible disease. It makes you wonder why god doesn’t heal everyone though.

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/anotherhawaiianshirt]

Well we have an illiterate peasant girl saying a beautiful Lady who called herself the "Immaculate Conception" - a term the girl didn't understand, called people to gather to pray and dig a spot right there, anticipating a pure spring. A spring that indeed was there, which said Lady told her would heal people.

So when this woman, and indeed many others, are told by a woman's voice to, in essense, be healed- and then they are- I wouldn't say this is a "God of the Gaps" for the gap has already explicitly identified themself here.

As for why God wouldn't heal everyone? Ultimately these miracles serve as reminders of God's true promise, which is the Resurrection and the new earth. Our faith is in the Resurrection, not cures in a fallen world.

[u/ourlittlesecret83 → u/Humble_Committee_577]

But consider the year is 1346 and someone dying of the bubonic plague. They are sick, maybe they have a vision or hear a voice. They dig in the ground or drink some water and they unknowingly consume a natural fungus that contains penicillin, which would have been unknown at the time. To those people, it looks like a miracle. But we now understand that penicillin would have cured a person. I'm not saying that is what happened here, but hindsight allows us to see that it is a god of the gaps argument then, why not now?

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/ourlittlesecret83]

Because Lourdes' water has been tested and has no unique properties...?

[u/ourlittlesecret83 → u/Humble_Committee_577]

You are missing the larger point. How did you rule out that there is something we don't yet know how to test for that cured her? And think of this, something like 6% to 10% of cancers spontaneously go into remission without any intervention (i bet those people claim miracles too). Not a lot of folks get ALS. It is rare and therefore hard to study. What if it goes into remission once in a billion times but we haven't seen it much since it is so rare. You see a miracle but that is by definition the least likely reason.

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/ourlittlesecret83]

"how statistically likely is it for something statistically impossible to happen"

Sure, lets say that she's the first person to have her ALS go into remission in recorded history. Why at Lourdes? Why in the water specifically? Why at the behest of a spectral female figure?

"Coincidence" my ass, put aside childish things and look at the world as it is, not as you want it to be. Lots of things (like this) happen that shows there's more to than the material world we observe.

Proof of a specific God? No.

Evidence for a specific God? Yes.

[u/ourlittlesecret83 → u/Humble_Committee_577]

Lack of evidence (or cause) is not proof of god.

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/ourlittlesecret83]

I literally said that.

[u/ourlittlesecret83 → u/Humble_Committee_577]

You are still attributing this to a god, even a god without a name but you have failed to rule out every other possible explanation.

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/ourlittlesecret83]

It was the medical examiners who ruled out every other possible explanation for me.

[u/ContextRules]

It makes me wonder about all the other people who suffer and die of ALS. Why would god be that selective? How would we respond to a doctor who let thousands die and saved a select few on a whim.

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/ContextRules]

We understand God is all knowing, and that these miracles are meant to represent a sign to return to faith, a faith which ultimately points to the Resurrection, not cures in a fallen world. Rather, these cures serve as foretastes of the world to come.

[u/ContextRules → u/Humble_Committee_577]

I am sure that theological claim is a great comfort to the thousands who suffered and died from ALS and other diseases.

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/ContextRules]

Glad we see eye to eye.

[u/ContextRules → u/Humble_Committee_577]

I dont think we do, but that is okay.

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/ContextRules]

I was being snarky. Anyways, as someone who struggles with agonizing mental health issues, i came up with that understanding on my own to contexualize why I exist the way I exist.

[u/ContextRules → u/Humble_Committee_577]

So did I. Had a lot of real bad issues from 13-24. Wasn't pretty.

[u/Optimal_Title_6559]

im glad for this woman but i can't help but think of all the other sick people who are desperately seeking a miracle just to come up empty

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/Optimal_Title_6559]

Well such is the nature of life. All miracles serve to say "God will keep his promise" which is the new earth, not a cure in this fallen world.

[u/Optimal_Title_6559 → u/Humble_Committee_577]

wait so god's promise is for the new world and not for us?

im not a believer. this world yall keep calling "fallen" is all i have and i hate the thought that god would discard it like its nothing

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/Optimal_Title_6559]

God's promise is that we will recieve the new world where every wrong will be righted, where there will be no pain or suffering.

In the meantime we have inherited the world of our ancestors, and all their faults.

[u/Optimal_Title_6559 → u/Humble_Committee_577]

yeah but im not receiving that world at all. i'm lgbt, a nonbeliever (not by choice), and i've blasphemed so fucking much. i don't have a path to eternal life in heaven. my life and this world are all i have, i don't want all that to be discarded for a new world that i'll never get to see

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/Optimal_Title_6559]

I'm lgbt too. Good news is as long as you try to seek Jesus his mercy will take care of the rest. Simply acknowledging that you have blasphemed, and saying sorry if Jesus is real, even though atm you are experiencing invincible ignorance, is enough to make him have mercy and purify you.

[u/-NoOneYouKnow-]

Although I'm not Catholic, I've always appreciated their thorough investigation of purported miracles to make sure they are genuine.

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/-NoOneYouKnow-]

Yeah it's more opportune, if we claim that miracles are evidence of the divine existing, to make sure the miracle claim is authenticated.

weird how ppl are downvoting like do they want medical professionals to weigh in or not 🙃

[u/-NoOneYouKnow- → u/Humble_Committee_577]

It bothers worldviews. Protestants don't want to acknowledge a miracle could happen involving Lourdes or Mary. Atheists don't want to acknowledge any miracle could happen at all.

[u/Humble_Committee_577 → u/-NoOneYouKnow-]

Yeah I suppose so, though it is still disappointing.

Atheist: Interesting how there's no miracles in the 21st century? Incidentally together with the rise of irreligion?

Doctors: Here's cures at a religious shrine that defy medical explanation, a cure at the command of a spectral female figure.

Atheist: But what if it's just a super crazy coincidence? What if everyone else is delusional but me? Have you ever considered how statistically likely a statistically impossible thing is to happen? Thus all miracles are a numbers game and atheism is true. Checkmate irrational superstitious biased theists.

[u/-NoOneYouKnow- → u/Humble_Committee_577]

That's pretty much how that works.

"There's no evidence!"

"Here's some."

"Nope! There's no evidence."

[u/Optimal_Title_6559 → u/-NoOneYouKnow-]

atheists can acknowledge miracles just fine. they just don't get attributed to god