June-July 2013
The undermining of belief in the
Real Presence precedes apace, actively and passively, at every level of Catholic
life. Not only is Our Lord’s definitive teaching misrepresented or understated,
the Eucharistic miracles which affirm the truth of the doctrine are waved away
or buried altogether. The month of June, dedicated to the Sacred Heart, is a
particularly appropriate time to reflect on the gravity of this subversion and
the immense pain it causes Our Saviour. For science repeatedly identifies
miraculous Eucharistic tissue as that of a traumatised heart muscle of a person
in their death agony.
Perhaps the most famous Eucharistic
miracle occurred in the eighth century in Lanciano, Italy. A Basilian monk
saying Holy Mass was experiencing doubts as to whether, at the moment of
elevation, the bread really became the Body of Christ, and the wine His blood.
As he pronounced the words of consecration, the bread changed into Flesh, and
the wine blood — and this in such a way as to be verifiable by the human
senses.
On 18 November 1970, Paul VI
instructed a group of Italian scientists to conduct a thorough analysis of this
Eucharistic species. Completed on 4 March 1971, the scientific findings
confirmed the traditional belief. From a scientific standpoint the miraculously
preserved Host contained a complete human heart. All the elements comprising
that muscle were present in it. The studies indicated that the heart was
mummified (though no trace of mummifying agents was found), bore no signs of an
incision, and that its tissue contained living protein. Preserved also
were five globules of coagulated human blood in its normal chemical composition,
of the rare AB group — the same blood group as found on the Shroud of Turin. In
1976, the United Nations appointed medical doctors to verify the 1971 findings.
They took samples of the flesh and blood from the Lanciano miracle and analysed
it. The results of their studies confirmed the expert opinion of the Italian
scientists.
In 1996, a Eucharistic miracle
occurred in Buenos Aires after a consecrated Host, profaned by unknown
perpetrators, was changed into human heart muscle tissue. This was determined in
1999 by a team of American researchers in New York under the direction of the
well-known cardiologist and forensic pathologist Professor F. Zugibe. The
scientists examining the delivered sample had no idea where it came from. They
determined that the material analyzed was a fragment of heart muscle tissue
found in the wall of the left ventricle, close to the valve. The muscle was in
an inflammatory state and contained a large number of white cells, thus
indicating that the heart was alive at the moment the specimen was taken. The
fact that the white cells had entered the tissue was evidence that the heart was
suffering intensely, as it would, for example, when one was struck hard on the
rib cage.
As a further contribution to the
Year of Faith, we offer the following reports on a more recent Eucharistic
miracle, carried by the Polish magazine Love One Another (Issue. 23).
Quite apart from silencing doubters
and giving serious pause to those who take Communion in the hand, all these
scientific verifications of the Catholic doctrine of Transubstantiation should
inspire within us the greatest awe, reverence, love, gratitude, humility and
devotion at each and every Mass and Holy Communion.
Sokółka
- Poland’s Lanciano
-
FATHER MIECZYSIAW PIOTROWSKI SChr
In October of 2008, an extraordinary event took place at St.
Anthony of Padua parish church in Sokółka, Poland. A consecrated Host was
transformed into a fragment of muscle tissue belonging to a living human heart
suffering severe stress and on the point of death.
Transformation of the Host
At 8:30. on Sunday morning October 12, 2008, Fr. Filip
Zdrodovvski was celebrating Holy Mass at the above-mentioned church. While Fr.
Jacek Ingielewicz was assisting him in distributing Holy Communion, one of the
hosts fell by accident on the altar step. A woman parishioner kneeling nearby
noticed it and pointed it out to Fr Jacek who promptly picked it up. Observing
that the Host was soiled, he placed it in the vasculum, a small bowl of
water standing beside the tabernacle (the vasculum is the little basin the
priest washes his fingers in after distributing Holy Communion).
After the Mass, the sacristan. Sister Julia Dubowska, took
the vasculum into the sacristy, emptied its contents into another vessel, and
locked it away in the safe. Only she and the pastor. Msgr. Stanislaw
Gniedziejko. had a key to the safe. It is worth noting that Sr. Julia is a
member of the Congregation of the Sisters Servants of Jesus in the Eucharist
whose special charism is to promote veneration of Jesus present in the Blessed
Sacrament.
Having never before dealt with such a situation, Sr. Julia
examined the vessel every day to see if the consecrated Host had dissolved.
Normally the host dissolves completely in the water after several days. She
expected the same to occur in this case. On October 19, around eight o'clock in
the morning, upon opening the sacristy safe, Sr. Julia recognized the smell of
bread. She assumed that the Host had dissolved completely and that she could now
empty the contents of the vasculum into the sacrarium, a special drain
located near the altar. When she looked at the Host in the vessel she was struck
dumb with amazement. In the centre of the white Host she saw what looked like a
bloody piece of living flesh measuring about a centimetre by a
centimetre-and-a-half. As laboratory analysis would later show, it was real
muscle tissue characteristic of a living human heart in the agony of death, as
if on the point of cardiac arrest. Sr. Julia stared at the extraordinary object
with the greatest astonishment and reverence. She confessed that she felt like
Moses gazing on the bush in the wilderness that burned without being
consumed.
Seeing the nun standing motionless so long over the
transformed Host, Fr. Filip Zdrodowski asked her what was the matter. Sr. Julia
explained to him what she had in her hand and how the consecrated Host came to
be there. She placed the vessel on the desk so that the Monsignor and the other
priests present in the sacristy might see the transformed Host.
Msgr. Stanislaw Gniedziejko would later recall his shock at
seeing the blood-red substance on the white Host. The water in which it was
immersed remained untinged by the blood. On taking a closer look at the bloody
substance on the Host, he saw something resembling a piece of flesh — a bloody
fragment of living tissue.
Everyone knew this was a consecrated Host in which the Risen
Christ was present in His glorified human nature. They began to wonder if this
red substance on the Host were the result of a natural process, or if it might
not be a supernatural sign through which Christ wished to make something very
important known. The Monsignor immediately cautioned those present against
trivializing the mysterious phenomenon. That same day he informed His Excellency
Archbishop Edward Ozorowski of the incident. Shortly afterwards, the Archbishop
paid a visit to Sokółka On examining the Host, he gave orders that it should be
kept safe and observed closely. On October 29, the vessel containing the Host
was transferred to the tabernacle of the Divine Mercy Chapel in the parish
presbytery. The following day, the Archbishop had the Host removed from the
water, placed on a white corporal, enclosed in a pyx, and deposited in the
tabernacle. In a short while, the Host dried out. The reddish brown bloody
substance encrusted itself onto the corporal, and thus it remains to this day.
For three years the Host was kept in the presbytery chapel. Not until October 2,
2011, was it solemnly brought back to the church and displayed for daily
adoration in the chapel of Our Lady of the Rosary.
Two outstanding scientists
On August 5, 2009, on the Archbishop's instructions, the
Metropolitan Curia of Białystok sent a letter to Profs. Maria Sobaniec-Lotowska
and Stanislaw Sulkowski of the Białystok Medical University requesting their
scientific expertise on "the material adhering to the Host as preserved at St.
Anthony of Padua parish church in Sokółka." The letter stressed the need for
treating the matter "with all due seriousness. urgency, and in the strictest
confidence."
Profs. Sobaniec-Lotowska and Sulkowski are both outstanding
scientists, highly respected in Poland and abroad. For thirty years they have
specialized in the field of histopathological diagnostics and have many academic
achievements to their credit. They work in two separate branches of the
Bialystok Medical University: the Institute of Medical Pathomorphology and the
Institute of General Pathomorph-ology.
On August 7, 2009, Prof. Sobaniec-Lotowska travelled to
Sokółka where, in the presence of a special commission, she took a sample of the
mysterious substance on the Host. "When I took the sample," she states, "I had
no idea what this substance was. I obtained a small amount of it. It was brown
in colour and adhered closely to the preserved fragment of the Blessed
Host."
The two professors conducted separate, rigorously scientific
analyses of the sample of the Host. Using state-of-the-art light and electron
microscopes, they photographed and made detailed descriptions of the
morphological images.
The results of the separate, independent analyses were in
complete agreement with each other, greatly astonishing the two scientists. It
turned out that the mysterious substance into which the fragment of the Host had
changed was muscle tissue of a human heart experiencing the agony of death — as
if on the point of cardiac arrest.
Professor Sobaniec-Lotowska explains:
"In the tiny fragment of material, which we examined,
we found the presence of several morphologically distinctive markers indicating
myocardial tissue. One of these markers is the phenomenon of segmentation, i.e.
damage to heart muscle fibres at the zone of insertion, and the phenomenon of
fragmentation. These lesions appear as multiple small cracks, as if cut with a
knife. Such changes occur only in necrotic fibres and reflect the rapid
contractions of the heart muscle in the final stages of death. Another important
proof that the test material comes from the muscle of a human heart is the
mainly centralized configuration of the nuclei in the observed fibres, which is
characteristic of that muscle. Along the length of some of the fibres we also
found patterns consistent with node contractions. Closer electron-microscopic
examination revealed outlines of the insertion points and delicate
microfibrillar networks. Summarizing our findings in the report to the
Archdiocesan Curia, we stated: ‘The material (...) indicates myocardial tissue,
or at least, of all the tissues of a living body, it most resembles it.’ And
what is important, in our opinion. is the fact that the material we analyzed
consists entirely of this tissue.”
Professor Sulkowski emphasises: "The matter comprising the
Host quickly dissolves when immersed in water. But the Blessed Host from Sokółka
has not broken down for reasons that remain baffling to science. What is still
more remarkable is the fact that the middle portion of the Host turned into
heart muscle tissue, forming an inseparable structure with the rest of the white
Host."
The photomicrographs are empirical, scientific proof that no
one could have united the two structures — heart muscle tissue and bread. Even
scientists equipped with the most up-to-date equipment could not produce
anything like it, so closely is the matter of the Host united and
interpenetrated with the heart muscle fibres. This excludes any possib-ility of
human interference. Professor Sobaniec-Lotowska stresses,
"This extraordinary and mysterious interpenetration of
the white Host's material with human heart muscle fibres was observed, examined,
and photographed using both light and electron microscopy. The indication is
that there could not have been any human intervention. Yet another extraordinary
fact bears mentioning. The Host remained immersed in water for a considerable
length of time, after which it was placed on the corporal. Yet our studies
indicated none of the changes one would have expected of heart muscle fibres
being immersed in water for so long a period. From the point of view of
empirical research, we are unable to explain this fact. These are undoubtedly
the most important studies I have conducted in my life. The results were
shocking to me. They point to an extraordinary phenomenon, which from a
scientific standpoint. is simply inexplicable."
Pseudo-scientific propagandists
The liberal and left-leaning media have endeavoured to cast
doubt on the results of the pathomorphological studies conducted by the two
outstanding scientists from Białystok. These media rely on the commentaries of
pseudo-experts who have no substantive grounds for forming a competent opinion
on these studies. One of these pseudo-experts, for example, opines: "It is not a
miracle, but simple biology." Another attributes the red colouring on the Host
to a bacilli-shaped bacterium (serratia marcescens). He presumes to
comment on the Phenomenon even though he has never seen it, let alone analyzed
the miraculously transformed Host or even read the scientific documentation.
Such an attitude is not only a denial of scientific objectivity, but also flies
in the face of human logic and elementary principles of ethics; the more so,
since both professors Sulkowski and Sobaniec-Lolowska clearly state that "no
bacterium known to science is able to create tissue structures; still less is it
able to create muscle fibres characteristic of the human heart; and yet we have
observed such fibres in the Host."
This is a statement of objective and incontrovertible fact.
Alas, there are some who, for ideological reasons, deny facts that cast doubt on
their own ideologìcal assumptions. Far from being objective, scientific claims,
their opinions are pure ideology. They are the propaganda of lies.
Other preposterous charges have also been made. One group of
so-called rationalists notified the public procurator, alleging that, since the
sample analyzed by the scientists indicated heart muscle tissue of a dying man,
a murder must have been committed. The prosecutor undertook to investigate the
matter, but quickly dismissed the allegation for lack of proof. Atheists who
reject objective facts behave irrationally. They are closed to the perception of
truth for a very simple reason: they clap ideological irons on the reality that
surrounds us. Only that exists which can be perceived by the senses, they claim
with doctrinaire certainty. Hence, they state with absolute conviction, God and
the spiritual world could not exist. Yet when confronted with clear, irrefutable
facts such as those that came to light at Sokółka — facts that cast doubt on
their ideological assumptions — these same "rationalists" proceed to explain
them away by resorting to laughable, irrational arguments.
"The indication of heart muscle tissue in the sample taken
from the communion wafer points to a miracle, and one would need strong
scientific evidence to disprove it," observed pathomorphologist Dr. Janusz
Mietkiewski in a letter to Maria Sobaniec-Lotowska shortly after the appearance
of the Curia's first communiqué.
The results of the pathomorphological studies conducted on
the Flesh-Host from Sokółka were sent to the Metropolitan Curia in Białystok on
January 21, 2009. The upshot of the report was unequivocal. The fragment of the
consecrated wafer had been changed into heart muscle tissue belonging to a human
being in the final stages of death. The structures of the heart muscle fibres
and bread wafer were so closely integrated as to exclude of the possibility of
human intervention.
True science confirms the true
Faith
Neither Professor Maria Sobaniec-Lotowska nor Professor
Stanislaw Sulkowski conceals the fact that they are believers. As scientists
they are keenly aware of the awesome complexity and design of both the macro-
and micro-cosmos. Since all this could not be of accidental origin, one comes to
the logical conclusion that there must exist a Supreme Intelligence — the One
Triune God. However, a rejection of faith in God is also an act of faith, but
one that rejects the clear logical conclusions that arise from our perception of
the world around us, the events associated with the life, death and resurrection
of Christ, the history of the Catholic Church, and the lives of the saints.
Obviously, in studying the sample of the Host, Professors
Sobaniec-Lotowska and Sulkowski were not guided by their faith; rather they
conducted their expertise in accordance with the rigorous norms of scientific
research, which they scrupulously documented with numerous photomicrographs.
On November 4, 2009, Profs. Sulkowski and Sobaniec-Lotowska
published a statement in which they once again certified the results of their
studies conducted on the sample taken from the transformed Host. In it, they
deplored the way in which "the public is being led into error by being presented
with hypothetical, pseudoscientific explanations of the phenomenon, which we
studied, especially by individuals who are ignorant of the parameters of these
studies, who do not have access to the material examined, and who all too often
lack even an elementary knowledge of the research methods used."
The transformation of the consecrated Host into the muscle of
a human heart in its death agony is a sign calling us all to repentance. It is a
reminder to all of us that every Holy Mass is a re-presentation (making present)
of the passion, death and resurrection of Christ and that Christ is truly
present in the consecrated Host in His glorified, resurrected humanity, in order
that He may offer Himself to us as our "antidote to death."
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