German physician evaluations of Lourdes healings

Medical Committee examines medical explanations for miracle cures in Lourdes

07/05/2013

Each year, between 30 and 40 people report spontaneous illness after a visit to the Marian Grotto in Lourdes. An international medics committee examines the supposed miracle cures, most of which are scientifically explainable. Only very few of them find the healing really inexplicable, reports the German physician and member of the Lourdes committee, Rolf Theiss.

Annually only two to three healings in Lourdes are interesting for doctors
Every year, around six million people make a pilgrimage to the pilgrimage site of Lourdes. Many of them are ill and ask for healing in the Marian Grotto. Because again and again it should come to miraculous healings, which could be in connection with 18 Marian apparitions from the year 1858. The German physician Rolf Theiss is the only German member of the international medical committee that investigates the spontaneous healings of Lourdes from a scientific point of view. Around 30 to 40 cases of this kind are reported each year. „But few cases are really inexplicable. And even fewer are considered miracles later“, reported the 66-year-old surgeon from Saarburg opposite the news agency „dpa“. Theiß reveals that only two to three cases per year are of interest to the committee. In the past year, pilgrims reported alleged miracle cures including hepatitis C, epilepsy, renal carcinoma and paralysis. „Many cases are eliminated from the outset“, explains the doctor. Apparently pretended healings and psychosomatic illnesses fell under it for example.

In the scientific investigation of the healings in Lourdes, the international committee first of all analyzes the medical history of the person affected, reported Tisza. It had to be clarified which disease it was exactly. Most of the patients who came to Lourdes had already received treatment in advance. „There we have to check carefully if the cure could not be a consequence of the treatment.“ In addition, it must be examined whether a disease is really cured and permanently disappears. Sometimes the test would be done over years, until a cure is really classified as not scientifically explainable.

Healing in Lourdes could also take place elsewhere
„We doctors do not speak of miracles“, says Tisza. Spontaneous cures could also occur in other places. „There are things everywhere that you can not explain.“ For him, the special thing about Lourdes is that many patients come together in this spiritual place.

An inexplicable healing would not be a miracle anyway, says the doctor. A classification as a miracle take only the Catholic Church. Of the approximately 7,000 healings in Lourdes recorded since the Marian apparitions of 1858, according to the sanctuary, only 68 have been recognized as miracles. The case of the Italian religious sister Luigina was the last cure designated by the Catholic Church as a miracle. The woman suffered from paralysis and was cured in Lourdes. As Tisza reports, this case was very interesting. „She has occupied us for years.“ The nun was paralyzed in 1965, but was suddenly able to move her foot again. From a medical point of view there is no explanation for the cure „according to the current state of science“, so Tisza. The now 79-year-old „is still healthy today“.

Tisza has taken over the seat in the committee of his father. The physician would make a pilgrimage to Lourdes though „not as a therapy“ recommend, however, would support a patient, „but when I realize that he would like to go there“.

Healings without conventional medical explanation
Also in medicine cases of healings are described for which there is no clear medical explanation. Some cancers, although rare, may experience a spontaneous remission that causes unexpected recovery or even complete recovery. The cause is the programmed cell death or neovascularization in tumors.

In fact, the human body is constantly busy with repair and regeneration processes. For example, around one billion cells a day are renewed in the skin. The inner layer of the small intestine is also completely renewed every three days. Even defects in DNA's DNA are repaired daily by enzymes. In the case of injuries such as broken bones or cuts in the skin, the body mobilizes additional self-healing powers that repair the damage. The body can cure many illnesses on its own - without medication or special therapies.

In May 2010, the US physicians Deborah Grady and Rita Redberg published the investigation „Less is more“, in which they spoke out for less medical care. Again and again, unwanted side effects of therapy measures outweigh the benefits, so less medical intervention sometimes leads to a better recovery. The results were published by the female doctors in the specialist magazine „Archives of Internal Medicine“ of „Journal of the American Medical Association“ (JAMA). (Ag)