Gulf Pine Catholic

Gulf Pine Catholic • September 15, 2023 15 Part of French’s motivation is a 2019 Pew Research Center survey that found 69% of Catholics don’t believe in the Real Presence. “That’s why there’s all these Eucharistic miracles: God is shouting it to us. And so that’s it: People need to hear it … particularly our youth,” he said. “That’s our future.” In some cases, scientific queries have shown that visible changes to a consecrated host are natural. In 2011 in the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis and in 2015 in the Diocese of Salt Lake City, biological analyses of consecrated hosts with red staining deter- mined the cause to be fungus, which some skeptics say could be the cause of other alleged Eucharistic mira- cles. Michael O’Neill -- known as “The Miracle Hunter,” with a show by the same name on EWTN -- said that when an alleged miracle occurs, the diocesan bishop may choose whether to investigate it, and following an investigation, whether to approve the event as a miracle worthy of belief. “In a lot of cases, miracles are complicated, in that they leave room for faith, where we must put in some faith to really believe a miracle is happening,” he told OSV News . “But when it comes to miracles that are the most scientifically testable, or provable, Eucharistic miracles are remarkable and unique, because we can see a true miracle really happening, as provable by sci- ence.” O’Neill is in the midst of a documentary project with interviews of experts and scientists who have stud- ied the miracles at Lanciano, Buenos Aires, Tixtla, Sokolka and Legnica. He said the project has special relevance for the National Eucharistic Revival , an ini- tiative of the U.S. bishops underway to inspire greater understanding of and reverence for the Real Presence. The documentary -- and O’Neill’s accompanying book -- are expected to be available ahead of the 2024 National Eucharistic Congress, the pinnacle of the three-year revival. While Eucharistic miracles have been getting more attention through the revival, including through the International Eucharistic Miracles of the World exhibit, a traveling exhibit of Eucharistic miracles initially cata- loged online by Blessed Carlo Acutis, they fall under the category of private revelation, and Catholics are not required to believe in them, O’Neill said. He emphasized that the most important miracle is the miracle of transubstantiation that occurs at every Mass -- the bread and wine becoming Jesus Christ in his body and blood, soul and divinity. “That is the true miracle and that’s what Catholics are to believe -- that’s a dogma of our faith,” O’Neill said. “When it comes to Eucharistic miracles, we might say it’s a miracle on top of a miracle. It’s just a little bit of a bonus that God gives us, perhaps, to help our faith, because it is the hardest of all Catholic beliefs -- that God, in all his power and might, would humble himself and make himself present to us in something that can be eaten.” However, Stacy Trasancos, a Catholic with a doc- torate in chemistry, cautions people from basing their faith solely in these miracles. In the 2021 book “Behold It is I: Scripture, Tradition, and Science on the Real Presence” that Trasancos co-wrote with Father George Elliott of the Diocese of Tyler, Texas, she examined the lab reports from analyses of the miracles at Lanciano and Buenos Aires, and she said their results were less conclusive than reported. “We’re Catholics and we’re after the truth,” Trasancos told OSV News . “We don’t have to make exaggerations. We don’t have to be ambiguous about the scientific data. We don’t have to be afraid of what the science might reveal.” She said some oft-repeated narratives about some Eucharistic miracles also aren’t accurate, such as a claim that a scientific commission appointed in 1973 by the World Health Organization conducted 500 tests on the Lanciano miracle and remained baffled by their results. The claim has been debunked by Dr. Franco Serafini, author of the 2021 book “A Cardiologist Examines Jesus: The Stunning Science Behind Eucharistic Miracles,” who reviewed the supposed WHO report to discover it was actually data from tests of Egyptian mummies placed between two pages about the Lanciano miracle. Its origin is unknown. If the church wants to promote the scientific basis for accepting Eucharistic miracles, Trasancos advises the miracles be restudied with the same rigorous stan- dards of proof and that scientists devise a standard set of procedures for the study of future reported miracles. If the results show that there are natural, not supernatu- ral, explanations for the alleged miracles, she said, it should not shake anyone’s faith. “We don’t really need these miracles to be true in order for us to believe in the Real Presence,” she said. “Our faith in the real presence ought to be primarily based on our faith in Jesus Christ.” Despite the weaknesses of individual tests, Father Spitzer said that the evidence, taken as a whole, “seems to suggest that now we’re crossing a threshold where it’s not unreasonable, it’s not pure enthusiasm, to believe that there really is living heart tissue growing out of these consecrated hosts.” “It’s not ‘proof,’’ he said. “All we’re saying is there’s scientifically investigated evidence that sup- ports probabilistic evidence -- that is to say, it supports a reasonable and responsible belief.” Maria Wiering is senior writer for OSV News. Eucharistic Miracles From page 13 The SET team comes first in order of priority. The biggest shift for me was realizing that much of my own silo represents a lot of inherited maintenance behavior. If we truly want to meet people where they are; we have got to be on mission. Mission doesn’t just mean leaving the country. It also means going across the hall. About a year and half ago we started working with a group called ACTS XXIX out of Detroit. There was a lot of prayer and discernment that went into even this decision. I remember we interviewed at least five dif- ferent apostolates trying to find the best fit for the vision of the bishop to continue the work started with Missio Nostra . ACTS XXIX have been invaluable in helping us build relationships and framework to func- tion higher as a team. When we did some of the first off-site trainings with ACTS XXIX , including a recent trip to Detroit to see their headquarters, I believe I can speak for most of the team when I say the last thing we felt like doing was traveling anywhere that wasn’t for a vacation. There were so many things we needed to get done on our various lists. However, when we got back, I believe we unanimously felt that we could not have gotten done what we accomplished over those days had we not made that trip. Time away from our usual day-to-day routine allows us to hear God more clearly and hear one another more clearly. If we don’t make intentional time to shift into a mis- sion mindset, we will never shift into a mission mind- set. If we only stay reactionary to everything that is happening around us, we’ll never be anything but reac- tionary. Read that again. There comes a time when you must even decide to pause good things to make sure everything in your scope is oriented properly. It’s easy to choose between a good thing and a bad thing. That’s common sense. How do you choose between three good things when you know you only have the staff, capacity, and volunteers to do one thing well? The first step is having a vision. The second step is having a team to discern that with you. That’s why this is a journey. A journey best spent with a team. A team agreeing to disagree where needed knowing the overall direction is always forward. And that forward direction is leading our diocese closer to building intentional disciples in our parishes, schools, ministries, and families. If that’s not the direction we are moving, we may not be moving anywhere before too long. How do you feel called to be involved? There’s no substitute for personal conversion and there’s no substi- tute for personal relationship. Those are two ideas we ask you to prayerfully consider right now no matter where you are on your journey whether you are a part of a team or not. May the Holy Spirit continue to pour out graces in abundance in all that we do as a diocesan family. SET Team From page 12