RCC WATCH:No new Lourdes miracles despite eased criteria

PARIS-When Bishop Jacques Perrier said the Roman Catholic Church would ease some criteria for miracles, skeptics foresaw a wave of pious believers claiming they had been healed at the famous shrine in his diocese of Lourdes.New categories were needed, Perrier argued, because medical progress in recent decades had made it all but impossible to meet the strict scientific criteria for certifying miracles at the pilgrimage site in southwestern France.Perrier proposed the new categories-declared, unexpected and confirmed healings-to allow the Church to officially honor the pilgrim's recovery and the spiritual experience that went with it, even if it cannot be called miraculous.Now, two years later and just before a visit to Lourdes this weekend by Pope Benedict, the bishop told Reuters there had been anything but a rush of healings. In fact, not a single new case of stunning recovery from serious illness has been established."This is a very difficult idea to get across because it is a graduated system," Perrier said by telephone from Lourdes when asked about the reform that skeptics have dubbed "miracle lite.""A binary message-that something is black or white, yes or no-is easy," he said. "But it will take at least 10 years to get people used to this idea."Of the six million pilgrims who visit Lourdes each year, about 40 claim they have been miraculously healed there. But doctors usually end up telling them their recoveries were not totally inexplicable.There are at least four cases being examined now that could be declared healings if they are not recognized as full miracles, he said. But that could still take several years.
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