St Michael Society

A new possible miracle has emerged that validates a life of heroic virtue of the recently declared Venerable Pope Pius XII.  The Catholic News Agency recounts this miracle:

“In 2005, a teacher of 31 years of age was expecting her third child in the city of Castellammare di Stabia.  She began to have strong pains, which after many tests and a biopsy, signaled the presence of Burkitt’s lymphoma.  The condition is typified by swollen lymph nodes, often starting in the abdominal region, and the cancer can spread to bone marrow and spinal fluid.  Not only was her health in danger, but that of her unborn child was also threatened.

Venerables Pope Pius XII and Pope John Paul II

The woman’s husband first prayed for the intercession Pope John Paul II, who was then only recently buried in the crypt of St. Peter’s.  It wasn’t long before the Holy Father appeared to the woman’s husband in a dream.  The spouse described to Tornielli what he saw that night, “He had a serious face.  He said to me, ‘I can’t do anything, you must pray to this other priest…’  He showed me the image of a thin, tall, lean priest.  I didn’t recognize him; I didn’t know who he might be.”

Several days passed before he, “by chance,” came across a picture of Pope Pius XII in a magazine and recognized him as the man John Paul II had shown him in the dream.

The man wasted no time in bombarding Pius XII with prayers for his wife’s healing and following her very first treatments she was declared free of the cancer, the tumor had disappeared.  In fact, she was cured so quickly that her doctors pondered the notion that they may have originally misdiagnosed the pathology.

The tests and charts were reconsulted and the initial diagnosis was confirmed. In the absence of the tumor, she had her baby and returned to work.  After some time had gone by, she decided to contact the Vatican regarding her experience.”

In the Catholic Church, the canonization of a saint goes through four major steps.  First the person is considered a “Servant of God”, then declared “Venerable”, then beatified as a “Blessed” and lastly, canonized a “Saint”.  Two miracles are needed in the making of a saint and they must be proven through appropriate canonical investigation.  For Venerable Pius XII to be beatified, or be called “Blessed”, it must be proven that a miracle occurred by his intercession.  After this step for him to be canonized a “Saint”, a second proven miracle must occur following his beatification that attributes his intercession.

In Venerable Pius XII’s case, whether this possible miracle makes the cut toward his beatification is the decision of a Tribunal and then the Congregation for the Causes of saints.  CNA continues:

“According to their report, a Tribunal has been organized by Archbishop Felice Cece of Sorrento-Castellammare to determine the nature of the occurrence and whether it will move on to the Vatican.

According to Tornielli, if they decide positively, the case will be sent on to Congregation for the Causes of Saints for investigation by a team of doctors to declare whether the event was explicable by natural means.  If there is no explanation found for the healing, theologians from the Congregation will debate the issue.  Only with their “go-ahead” can a dossier subsequently reach the hands of Pope Benedict XVI for official recognition.”

It is very refreshing to hear of the intercession of Venerable Pius XII in light of the fact that he has been falsely accused of being a Nazi sympathizer and an anti-Semite.  This accusation could not be further from the truth.

Gary Krupp, a Jewish man and the head of Pave the Way Foundation , a non-sectarian public foundation, which identifies and eliminates non-theological obstacles between the faiths, has brought to the forefront new evidence of the heroic virtue of Venerable Pius XII and has shown that he directly intervened to save countless Jews.   In a Dec. 28 New York Post article Krupp talked about how while even FDR’s America refused to accept Jewish refugees, Venerable Pius XII “issued false baptismal papers and obtained visas for them to emigrate as ‘Non Aryan Catholic-Jews.’  He smuggled Jews into the Americas and Asia. He ordered the lifting of cloister for men and women to enter monasteries, convents and churches to hide 7,000 Jews of Rome in a single day…Pinchas Lapide, a Jewish historian, theologian and Israeli ambassador, stated that the actions and policies of Pius XII saved as many as 860,000 Jews.”

How did the gross misconception come about the Venerable Pius XII was a Nazi sympathizer?  Krupp states: “A few articles in the postwar era suggested that he should have done more to confront the Nazis — but it wasn’t until 1963, in the wake of the fictitious play “The Deputy” (written five years after Pius died), that accusations began flowing that he had failed to act, that he was a cold-hearted Nazi sympathizer who couldn’t care less about the Jewish people.  The evidence strongly suggests this was part of a KGB-directed and -financed bid to smear Pius, a Soviet disinformation campaign meant to discredit the Catholic Church, which at that time was profoundly anti-Communist.”

It is time to right what has been wronged.  The Father of Lies has succeeded in convincing the public that Venerable Pius XII was “Hitler’s Pope” when in fact he was a “Friend to the Jews”.

To see our earlier post on an exciting new movie that is coming out about Venerable Pius XII’s life, please go here.