She passed away in 1680, but her miracles continue.
Catholic researchers say they’ve received over 100 written accounts of purported miracles attributed to Blessed Kateri Tekakwitha over the years.
So far, none of them has been accepted by the Catholic Church. But a small group of believers is working hard to change that and get Blessed Kateri recognized as a saint.
“In order for a miracle to be officially recognized, all the pertinent medical documents must be provided and the cure must be instantaneous,” said Albert Lazare, office manager of the Kateri Centre in Kahnawake.
Legitimizing a miracle is a long process, according to Paul Lenz, executive director of the Bureau of Catholic Indian Missions in Washington (which represents the Catholic Church in the Native American community).
Lenz has had numerous meetings with Father Jacques Bruyere, the Canadian vice-postulator who is in charge of the Kateri sainthood cause in Canada while working out of the Kateri Centre.
Father Bruyere, for one, hasn’t lost faith. To the contrary. His “Katerigram” published in the latest quarterly edition of “Kateri: Lily of the Mohawks” magazine is entitled “Great Expectations.”
“What will happen tomorrow?” he asks. “We don’t know, but we’re looking forward to something good.”
The Eastern Door newspaper in Kahnawake recently reported that prayers to the Blessed Kateri led to the improbable recovery of a Cochiti woman named White Bull from a 16-year coma following childbirth, just one of many glowing testimonials to Kateri’s healing powers recorded long after her death in 1680.
“Maybe the miracle has finally come up,” said Lenz. “Maybe this is it.”
Lazare cites many other such cases, all of which have been to no avail thus far in getting Kateri officially declared a saint.
“In 1982,” he recalls, “a St-Remi man fell very sick and the doctors said nothing could be done for him.” He was thought to be on his deathbed. “But after prayers to the Blessed Kateri, the man was cured,” Lazare remembers. However, even after all the necessary documents were gathered, the doctors refused to admit it was a miracle, saying it could have been the medicine.
“It’s very difficult to prove a miracle,” Lazare added, an understatement if ever there was one.
“Some 10-15 years ago in Phoenix, a couple’s son was cured from deafness by prayers to Kateri,” he contends. “One man living in New York State overcame a serious heart problem and yet another regained his eyesight after praying to her.”
These are only a handful of testimonials to the Blessed Kateri received at “action central,” otherwise known as the Kateri Centre. A Kahnawake teenager named Brandy Kateri Bush helped intensify a campaign last spring to get at least “50,000 promises of a daily Our Father, Hail Mary and three Glories until the miracle needed for Blessed Kateri’s canonization is obtained and approved.” Over 29,000 pledges were recorded after 10 years’ effort.
Based on the preachings of the Bible, one should be persistent in requesting a miracle. According to Luke 10:27, the basic tenet to be observed when asking for a miracle is this: “Before asking for a cure-one must request it ardently and persistently.”
To support this theory, the Bible quotes a certain judge’s thinking in Luke 18:4: “Since she keeps pestering me, I must give this widow her just rights, or she will persist in coming and worry me to death.”
-Source: The Eastern Door
