Catholic Church investigates inexplicable healing of dying man

[Retro4Life]

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VANCOUVER -- Rev. John Horgan knew a dying man when he saw one. Years of working as a chaplain in Vancouver General and St. Paul's hospitals had seen to that.

So when he saw Peter Andersen in Vancouver General's intensive care unit on the afternoon of July 3, 2008, he didn't need anyone to tell him that Andersen's situation was grave. His blood stream was teeming with the bacteria from two flesh-eating diseases: myositis, which attacks the muscles, and necrotizing fasciitis, which invades the flesh beneath the skin.

Andersen, on life support, was bloated beyond recognition from septic shock. Whole muscle groups of dead tissue had been stripped away by surgeons from his right leg. His blood pressure was so low it was in the range that indicates imminent death, and his kidneys and other organs had failed.

He appeared to be within hours of dying.

But what happened next is going to lead to a formal investigation by the Catholic Church to determine if the spiritual intervention of an Irish-French monk, Columba Marmion who died in 1923, was responsible for a medical miracle.

Because Andersen didn't die. He made a recovery that at first sight seems to defy medicine and logic.

The canonical investigation of Andersen's healing could lead to the canonization of the monk as a saint.

On June 30 last year, Andersen suddenly developed a high fever and complained of a pain in his leg. The next day, the pain became unbearable.

"I remember them putting me in the ambulance, but after that I lost consciousness for two weeks," Andersen said, describing it as an awful darkness.

Until he developed what appeared to be the flu, Peter was a healthy, strapping individual, Charlene said.

"The surgeons removed bagfuls of dead tissue and muscle and he'd had two skin grafts. Then he contracted severe septic shock syndrome, which caused his body to bloat like a balloon. I asked them, 'Can you save him?' and one surgeon said, 'We are trying, but no, he's not going to make it.' I pleaded with them to take his leg off but they said it was too late for that."

Charlene sent for Horgan, the couple's parish priest, who had introduced them to books written by Marmion, who was given the title "Blessed" based on a miraculous cure attributed to prayers for his intercession.

Horgan arrived carrying with him a relic of Marmion - a fragment of his monk's habit.

The priest was gowned and masked and led into intensive care unit. While praying that God would spare his friend's life, he took the relic and placed it on Andersen's head, heart and on the dressing covering his diseased leg.

"I asked Blessed Marmion to intercede with the Lord and bring healing," said Horgan.

At mass the next day he asked the congregation to pray for a miracle for Andersen, "as this was his only hope."

Charlene didn't believe her husband would survive: "I knew he was going to die and I didn't believe a miracle was going to happen, my faith wasn't strong enough. The charge nurse told me he was at the point of death."

But Peter didn't die that Thursday, or the Friday.

On Saturday, five days after he fell ill, a nurse rushed up to Charlene.

"He was really excited. He said, 'The blood culture's come back and it's negative. I'm taking him off life support.' He pulled the tube out of his mouth and Peter said to me, 'Can you give me a hug?' "

One of his surgeons told Charlene her husband's recovery was a miracle, another said he was very lucky.

He would be in hospital for the next four months. Doctors told her he would never walk again or drive a car, and a psychiatrist told her he would likely be brain-damaged - none of which happened. He has returned to work as the pastoral care director of Columbus Residence, a care facility for the elderly in south Vancouver.

News of his inexplicable recovery eventually spread to Marmion's former abbey in Belgium and to an Irish priest, Rev. Mark Tierney of County Limerick, who is promoting Marmion's cause for sainthood.

Blessed Marmion was born in Dublin in 1858 and was a diocesan priest until he entered Maredsous Abbey in Belgium, where he became abbot in 1909. He wrote a number of books, including Christ, the Life of the Soul, that are considered spiritual classics. A Benedictine abbey in Illinois is named after him.

Both the Maredsous Abbey and Tierney have asked the archdiocese to launch a formal investigation into the healing and Tierney has already travelled to Vancouver and met the Andersens.

Horgan, an expert on the church's process for canonization, said the inquiry will gather all the medical documentation and seek to interview physicians involved in the treatment. It will take statements from himself and the Andersens.

"It's a rigorous process and the word miracle isn't used. What will be investigated is whether the healing was of such an extraordinary nature as to be medically inexplicable - in other words, something that science can't account for," Horgan said.

If the local investigation is satisfied that is the case, all the material will be sent to Rome to the Vatican's Congregation For the Causes of Saints, the department that investigates candidates for sainthood.

The dossier will be given to a medical consultation team of nine physicians to review, and if they determine the healing to be inexplicable it then passes to a committee of theologians to see if a connection can be drawn between the medical outcome and Marmion, said Horgan. "If they believe that is the case, it then becomes reviewed by a committee of bishops and if it passes them it is bumped up to the Pope. He's the only one who can say it's a miracle," Horgan said.
© Copyright (c) Canwest News Service


Peter Andersen (left) began to recover from flesh-eating disease after Rev. John Horgan put a relic of Blessed Marmion on his head, heart and diseased leg.

Peter Andersen (left) began to recover from flesh-eating disease after Rev. John Horgan put a relic of Blessed Marmion on his head, heart and diseased leg.
Photograph by: bill keay, Vancouver Sun