The Ureta Wilson family carried the relics of Don Alvaro del Portillo in the ceremony of the beatification of the first successor of Saint Josemaria Escriva de Balaguer, founder of Opus Dei, that took place Saturday in Madrid. They were given this honor because their son, Jose Ignacio, was the beneficiary of a miraculous healing obtained by the intercession of Don Alvaro.
Jose Ignacio recovered after a cardiac arrest of more than half an hour, in an event that was recognized as miraculous by Pope Francis on July 5, 2013.
“This situation, this story, has united us much more as a married couple and as a family, making our love of God more constant and profound,” explained his mother, Susana Wilson.
The child’s father, Javier Ureta, expressed his gratitude to the Blessed and said that that was the reason he was in Madrid, to give thanks.
”This situation has done us so much good that, knowing the end, we would live it again for the good it brought us all,” he reflected.
During a press conference the mother of the miraculously cured child recalled how, as they prayed using a holy card of Alvaro del Portillo, a recommendation made by the maternal grandmother, their child improved.
“I didn’t lose hope and I asked all my friends to pray to him, and Jose Ignacio recovered.”
Jose Ignacio’s father described how his son is at present. “Now he runs, jumps, he is a normal child and we treat him as such, but he does have a supernatural sense of gratitude to God. For him, Alvaro del Portillo is a father who always accompanies him.”
And his mother stressed: “That is why we have called our youngest son Alvaro, in thanksgiving to the future Blessed.”
Jose Ignacio was born in Santiago, Chile, on July 10, 2003, with a very serious clinical analysis. Two days after his birth he underwent surgery. However, shortly after the operation his condition worsened. On the night of July 29 he suffered an epileptic fit and the doctors decided to carry our palliative cardio-surgery. However, on August 2 Jose Ignacio suffered a cardiac arrest that lasted more than half an hour. It was through prayers to Alvaro del Portillo that the miracle was wrought, leading to the priest’s beatification.
