St Thomas Catholic church miracle? Vatican to determine if a divine act occurred during a recent church service following reports of communion hosts, wafers being handed out multiplying.
God just duplicated himself… The Vatican is reviewing parishioners’ claims that a miracle occurred at a Connecticut Catholic church where the number of Communion hosts, known as wafers, handed out multiplied.
The Communion-centered event reportedly happened during a March mass at St Thomas Catholic Church – with the Holy See in Rome, Italy, notified of the alleged event last week.
The miracle was reported by a parishioner who was assisting the Communion at a March 5 congregation.
Did a miracle really occur?
The incident was first investigated by the Archdiocese of Hartford after Rev. Joseph Crowley said: ‘God duplicated himself in the ciborium.’
The so-called eucharist miracles are exceedingly rare, with only 152 of them ever being recognized by the Roman Catholic Church.
Since the beginning of the 21st century there have only been four, according to the Catholic News Agency.
Michael O’Neill, who goes by the name ‘The Miracle Hunter,’ says it will be difficult without physical evidence to prove a real miracle occurred.
‘I’d be highly surprised that they were able to have enough evidence to declare it a true eucharistic miracle,’ O’Neill told the Hartford Courant.
During the March 5 service, Rev. Crowley claimed the Communion hosts, often referred to as wafers, had multiplied in the ciborium.
The ‘miracle’ occurred inside the Thomaston church and was witnessed by one person assisting with Communion.
Afterward, Rev. Crowley addressed the crowd and spoke through tears.
‘One of our eucharistic ministers was running out of hosts and suddenly there were more hosts in the ciborium. God just duplicated himself in the ciborium,’ he said.
‘It’s really, really cool when God does these things, and it’s really, really cool when we realize what he’s done,’ the shocked reverend said.
According to the Courant, afterward, Hartford Archbishop Leonard Blair told reporters he appointed a priest well-versed in church law.
The priest was tasked with looking into the ‘miracle’ and would decide whether or not the Vatican should be informed.
4 eucharistic miracles approved by the Vatican
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese told the Courant that ‘reports such as the alleged miracle in Thomaston require referral to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome.’
‘The Archdiocese has proceeded accordingly, and will await a response in due time,’ spokesman David Elliot said.
The Dicastery was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy, according to the Vatican’s website.
‘The Archdiocese has proceeded accordingly, and will await a response in due time,’ Elliott told the Courant.
Despite the testimony from Rev. Crowley and the parishioners, O’Neill said the church faces an uphill battle in order to have the incident considered a real miracle.
‘I’m guessing they have the testimony of numerous people who would have been able to say that they saw something and understood that this had to have been miraculous,’ O’Neill said.
‘So I’m guessing they’re caught in the middle a little bit not having the hard evidence but having good testimony,’ he added.
The ‘Miracle Hunter’ added that he thinks the Archdiocese is likely looking to the Vatican for ‘guidance’ on whether any real miracle took place…
There have been four recent eucharistic miracles approved by the Vatican, O’Neill said: in Poland, Mexico and Argentina. The churches in those cases were permitted to erect a shrine, he said.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, the authoritative text on church teachings, a miracle is defined as “a sign or wonder such as a healing, or control of nature, which can only be attributed to divine power.”
