ROME, AUG. 29, 2001 (Zenit.org).- The scientifically inexplicable cure of an Indian woman might lead to the beatification of Mother Teresa of Calcutta.
Following the Aug. 15 conclusion of the diocesan phase of the process of beatification, Father Brian Kolodiejchuk, postulator of the cause, revealed details of a miracle attributed to the intercession of the founder of the Missionaries of Charity. The miracle has been reported to the Vatican Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
The patient in question is Monika Besra, a wife and mother, who suffered from tuberculosis and an abdominal tumor.
«The doctors thought I was too weak to be operated on,» Besra said. Her situation deteriorated rapidly, Father Kolodiejchuk told the Italian magazine Famiglia Cristiana.
«At 5 o´clock in the afternoon of Sept. 5, 1998 — exactly one year after Mother Teresa´s death — some Missionaries of Charity, who looked after her [Besra], began to pray and placed on her abdomen a ´miraculous medal´ of the Immaculate — which had touched Mother Teresa´s body before the burial,» the postulator said.
«During the night, the patient woke up and realized that the malignant growth had disappeared,» the priest continued. «Subsequent medical controls have verified that there has been no recurrence.»
Father Kolodiejchuk said that it will take two more years to write the «positio,» the text that must be evaluated by theologians and cardinals for the declaration of Mother Teresa´s heroic virtues. The examination likely will take another year.
At the same time, a commission of doctors and scientists will have to address the questions relating to the miracle. Only then, after the canonical requisites have been fulfilled, will the Pope be able to announce the decree of beatification.
The postulator revealed that the diocesan phase resulted in 76 volumes, each of 450 computer printed pages, which include the letters and writings of Mother Teresa, as well as the depositions of 112 eyewitnesses from around the world.
