"God can still heal if you pray to him to do so,"; said Pope John Paul II recently in his Sunday angelus message, which turned into a call to solidarity with the sick, the old and children. According to the Pope, "all of them are in danger of being regarded as a burden".
In Italy, this invitation from the Pope to pray for a miracle brings back into the public arena the claimed miracle of the Madonna in Civitavecchia, a village near Rome, where a small icon brought from Medjugorje weeps tears of blood.
A theological commission appointed by the Vatican has now accepted this as a miracle, according to an unconfirmed report. The statue was first seen weeping tears of blood, which was found to be human, in early 1995. The second anniversary of this miracle was attended by about 10,000 pilgrims. The local bishop surprised those present by blessing the occasion. He said that at least two people had been miraculously cured of cancer, one in Turin and the other in Toronto. In addition, political extremists, previously dedicated to violence, had been converted to peace and Christianity. Civitavecchia is now attracting thousands of pilgrims.
( Source : The Tablet, UK; El Pais, Spain; reported in Share International, April 1997 )
AIDS miracle cure in Uganda
In Uganda more than 400 people have been cured of AIDS and the HIV-virus through prayer since January 1994, according Omega a programme made by the Evangelical Broadcasting Company, in Holland. Uganda is one of the countries hardest hit by AIDS with some 40 per cent of the population being infected. A whole generation will be wiped out; grandparents are taking over the role of parents to their grandchildren, their own children having fallen victim to AIDS.
In a church in Kampala (Uganda) people suffering from the disease were cured after prayer meetings for them. When they were tested again they were found to be zero-negative -- free of the virus.
A now healthy-looking young woman told of how she had been so ill with AIDS that the local AIDS help organization turned her down and declined to give her a place because she was already 'too far gone'. The disease had reached such a stage that she had holes in her head into which she could poke her fingers; most of her abdomen and breasts had been destroyed, and in fact she deteriorated to a phase where her entire body seemed to be disintegrating. Her skin had also been attacked but suddenly she noticed that her skin was beginning to renew itself spontaneously. She grew, as it were, a new skin four times and new flesh began to cover her previously almost bare bones. Throughout her illness she had prayed constantly and had continued to believe in God. Others prayed for her too and believed that God would cure her. She had to learn to walk again, just as if she had been a baby.
A young girl, Anna Catherina, began suffering from headaches, stomach pains and a severe skin rash. A doctor diagnosed AIDS and she was sent to the local AIDS-clinic. But "because God was not present in the clinic" she did not go there but went instead, although she was not religious, to the church and began praying hard. She was tested twice and both times she was found to be zero-positive -- she had AIDS. Although four subsequent tests proved that she was infected she continued to believe and pray. It came as no surprise to her then that the seventh and eighth test showed that she was zero-negative -- totally cured of AIDS.
An independent Dutch doctor, Elly Vooys, who went to Kampala with the camera crew said that there is no medical explanation for such healing. The relevant documentation kept by the hospital concerned showed that six tests indicated that the girl was suffering from AIDS, she was quite clearly zero-positive and that the subsequent two tests showed her to be zero-negative. She was tested using the "Elisa-method" a well-known test which has an accuracy rating of 99.9 per cent. Case documents on Anna Catherina attest to the fact that she fully recovered from all AIDS-related symptoms. For instance, she had previously suffered greatly from painful swelling all over her skin; both the swellings and the pain have completely vanished. Only here and there had faint scars remained.
The church in Kampala has documentary evidence from the hospital of more than 110 cases of healing. There are about 300 more people who were also cured from AIDS or the HIV-virus who do not have any documents or case histories to substantiate their claims. Apart from AIDS cases people were also cured of other diseases. According to Anna Catherina these patients include both believers and non-believers. (Evangelical Broadcasting Company, Holland, 1995 )
Get up and walk
Until seven years ago, Jean Neill of Rugby, England, spent her days in a wheelchair, often suffering almost intolerable pain. Her suffering began when she broke her back in a fall, after which she spent nearly four years, more or less permanently, in hospital, and underwent 10 unsuccessful operations. To add to her misery she was involved in a road accident as a result of which she lost most of her sight and suffered three heart attacks.
Seven years ago, while on a waiting list for yet another operation, she attended a religious youth gathering in Birmingham. Six weeks before the meeting she had two dreams. In the first she saw herself die on the operating table. In the second she saw herself in a large hall being prayed for by a tall man with a foreign accent. She also saw herself get up out of her wheelchair and run.
Six weeks later at the meeting in Birmingham, the evangelist came up to Jean shortly before the meeting was about to end. Jean later learnt that the Holy Ghost had told him that she was to be the greatest miracle of the evening and that he would see her walking. The evangelist prayed that the healing power of God would flow through her. Her eyes opened and she could see again. Her lungs filled with air. Her crippled hip became normal. Her pain disappeared along with her paralysis. She could stand erect and she could walk. Beside herself with joy she ran through the crowd gathered in the hall and embraced total strangers.
Her doctors were speechless with amazement and have no explanation of how someone who had been in a wheelchair for 25 years could suddenly be healed. (Source: Evangelical Broadcasting Company, Holland, 1996 )
Healing Prayer Answered
As a priest in Amman, Jordan, removed the cloth from the holy bread just before communion, the bread began to bleed profusely. The priest had just mentioned the name of a bedridden parishioner in need of healing. At that moment, the man in question, who was at home on oxygen, felt compelled to take off his oxygen mask and go to the church. He arrived there healed. ( Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation; reported in Share International, July-August 1991 )
Building survivor says monk gave her apple
According to NBC television news in the US, a survivor found 16 days after a building collapsed in Seoul, South Korea, dreamed she was visited by a monk who gave her an apple. Rescue workers carried 19-year-old Park Sung Hyun from the rubble of Sampoong Department Store on a stretcher. She was later reported to be weak but in a stable condition at a hospital. "It's a miracle, it's a miracle," her mother said.
Another survivor, 18-year-old Yoo Ji Hwan, had been pulled from the wreckage after living 12 days under tons of rubble. According to a Reuters report: "Fortune tellers and spiritual experts helped rescue workers search for survivors after a professor said he felt a spiritual force emanating from the rubble" and a survivor was found the following day. (Source: NBC News; Associated Press; Reuters; Suddeutsche Zeitung; reported in Share International, September 1995 )
Miraculous experiences during the Kobe earthquake
Michiko Ishikawa has compiled an in-depth report describing the experiences of some of the survivors of the Kobe earthquake.
Kobe earthquake: more miraculous experiences by Michiko Ishikawa