Chilean woman miraculously cured of brain paralysis is now pregnant

CNA ^ | August 1, 2008

[NYer]

Maria Mercedes with her mother

Santiago, Aug 1, 2008 / 10:23 am (CNA).- Maria Mercedes Correa Maldonado, a 23 year-old Chilean woman who in explicably “woke up” from cerebral palsy when she was 18, is now pregnant, in what could be the second miracle attributed to Italian seminarian Nicola D’Onofrio (1943-1964), whose cause of beatification is open in the Diocese of Rome.

Maria Mercedes suffered from grave cerebral palsy but on a March afternoon on 2003, after her mother had incessantly prayed to the Italian seminarian for his intercession, she woke up in her hospital bed in Puataendo, sat up and said, “I’m hungry.”

Inexplicable from a medical point of view, the case drew the attention of the Sons of St. Camillus, who are following D’Onofrio’s beatification process in Rome, which began in 2000.

Now, five years after her miraculous recovery, Maria Mercedes says she is experiencing a new miracle from D’Onofrio, as she has become pregnant despite doctors’ diagnoses that it would be impossible.  “All the specialists who examined her came to the conclusion that she could never have any children. But now she is pregnant. It is a new miracle,” her mother said.

“I realized she could be pregnant; I took her to the doctor and tests confirmed it. For me, this is the second miracle by Nicola, a way of closing Maria Mercedes’ cycle of recovery,” she told the Chilean daily “El Mercurio.”

“I feel good and I’m happy about this new stage in my life and happy to know that my son is going to be born healthy. I’m a little bit afraid to go back to the hospital even though I spent eighteen years there,” Maria Mercedes told “El Mercurio.”

Nicola D’Onofrio joined the Order of St. Camillus at the age of 17. He was know for his deep devotion, which led his spiritual director to ask him to write a diary in order to keep a record of his experiences of the love of God for others to read. Towards the end of 1962, he suffered the first symptoms of cancer that would end his life at the age of 21.

He bore his illness with heroism and enthusiasm and inspired joy and fervor in his fellow students. His superiors, seeing that his end was near, asked for a dispensation from the Holy See to allow him to make his perpetual profession, which Nicola longed for. On May 28, 1964, he made is perpetual vows.

On June 12, 1964, after a full of day of prayer, Nicola met with his brother religious and encouraged them to follow him on “the path towards eternity.” Nicola passed away in the evening of the same day.

The remains of the Servant of God are buried at Bucchianico, near the crypt of St. Camillus, a popular pilgrimage destination.

[NYer]

The Servant of God

Nicola D’Onofrio,

Camillian Religious.

24 March 1943 - 12 June 1964

[Thorin]

A wonderful story.

[Soliton]

on a March afternoon on 2003, after her mother had incessantly prayed to the Italian seminarian for his intercession, she woke up in her hospital bed in Puataendo, sat up and said, “I’m hungry.”

Why did she wait 18 years to start praying?

[wideawake]

Define “incessantly” for us, please.

[Gamecock]

Benny Hinn Ping.

[Jaded]

Awesome story.

Well, the rest didn’t take long.

[Alex Murphy]

Chilean woman miraculously cured of brain paralysis is now pregnant

Are you suggesting there's a connection?

[Sacajaweau]

No mention of the father....

[Sacajaweau]

Something doesn’t ring right here...

[Lee N. Field]

No mention of the father....

married at all?

[fr_freak]

No mention of the father....

If we're told that she's still a virgin, things could get very interesting.

[raynearhood]

No mention of the father....

If we're told that she's still a virgin, things could get very interesting

My thoughts exactly. I was wondering what the father would have to say. Then I saw no mention of a father, only a miracle attributed to an almost beatified seminary student. Which led me think, "What kind of miracle is that?"

If there is no father mentioned in the story - even more if the mother is the one to notice her daughter pregnant and takes her to the hospital - then there likely is no legitimate father. If that's the case then there are three possible explanations:
1. She's married and this reporter stinks
2. This is the result of fornication, which I'm pretty confident the Catholic Church would not allow to be officially declared a miracle, or
3. This is a virgin conception.

Well, I'm gonna go ahead and reject "3" out of hand. Now, I'm interested to see if this story develops, and how. So then there are four possibilties I can see:
1. She's married and this reporter stinks,
2. It's fornication and forgotten,
3. It's fornication, and condemned, or
4. The mother and daughter try to cover up the fornication with a two miracles (out of the coma and virgin conception) story. Why not? If the almost beatified seminary student can perform one miracle, why not two?

I predict either "1" or "2" will end up being the case.

[raynearhood]

See post 13. Either this is a poorly written story, or the CNA isn’t getting the whole story and there is something fishy going on.

[NYer]

I was wondering what the father would have to say. Then I saw no mention of a father, only a miracle attributed to an almost beatified seminary student. Which led me think, "What kind of miracle is that?"

Well it seems you two are on to something :-) Yes, indeed, this young Catholic woman is no doubt the victim of Church doctrine against artifical birth control and sex outside of marriage. The newspaper was too embarrased to print that information so they left it up to savvy readers, like you, who are much more intuitive and can draw these conclusions from their own personal experiences in life ;-) fr_freak is probably right. Next week the same journalistic media will proclaim this the "second" virgin birth. After all, it is a well known fact that Mary, the Mother of Jesus, had a scandalous affair with a Roman soldier that resulted in her pregnancy. She took full advantage of the mood of 'expectancy' at the time with Jews anticipating the birth of the Messiah, and proclaimed herself the Mother of God!

Good catch! /s/

[raynearhood]

Wow! That was a bit harsh. Did you read my whole post? I said, I believe, that either the reporter was bad, and there was nothing wrong with the story, OR CNA didn’t get the whole story from the local reporter and missed something. I tossed other possibilities out there, but settled on just two.

1. She’s married and the reporter stinks
or
2. She’s not and this will be buried (by buried I mean internationally... no reason to embarass a woman in front of the whole world, when a local reprimand would do)

[fr_freak]

Yes, indeed, this young Catholic woman is no doubt the victim of Church doctrine against artifical birth control and sex outside of marriage. The newspaper was too embarrased to print that information so they left it up to savvy readers, like you, who are much more intuitive and can draw these conclusions from their own personal experiences in life ;-) fr_freak is probably right.

How did we get from me making a joke about Jesus Christ being on His way back to this? I think I missed a link in the chain of your reasoning here.

[Jaded]

Maybe they should burn her at the stake?

[raynearhood]

Maybe they should burn her at the stake?

Your comment makes no sense.

First off, let's get something square. My comment was that I noticed the article missing something. That something was any mention of a husband.

Does that mean that she doesn't have a husband? No.

Is it possible that the local reporter covering the story failed to report it, thus leaving the question out there, and as a result is a poor reporter of religious issues? Yes.

Is it also possible that she doesn't have a husband and the pregnancy is the result of immoral sexual activity? Yes, and given that the report fails to mention a father/husband, while explaining that it was the mother who recognized her daughter pregnant and took her to get tested, it stood out to me as a possibilty.

So, if that is the case, what responsibility does the CNA and the local Catholic church have? Well, the CNA has none. Probably accepted a sweet story at face value. The local church. A reprimand and then helping the young lady through it.

The comments about the possibility of a virgin birth claim have to do with the odd stuff that I've seen come out of Central and South America. You know, Mary on burnt toast, Jesus in some moss, Mother Theresa on a dinner roll, as well as some of the Brazilian religious parades that involve a mix of Catholicism and magic. I was simply saying that such a claim isn't totally unlikely to be made. (and I know that if the claim was made, which I doubt it will, the Catholic Church would reject it.)

But, in the end, I gave her the benefit of the doubt and said that there are two possible outcomes, as I see it, to the development of the story. Either, a: She has a husband and the reporter stinks at his or her job (which means this would be considered in the seminarians beatification), or b: She doesn't have a husband, the pregnancy is a result of fornication, and the Church will not agree that this is a miracle (and she should probably be locally reprimanded [how does it work? excluded from all sacraments except confession until she does penance?]).

I'm confused. How is it that when I wrote the reply I sounded damning at all? I gave possibilties as to why no father/husband was mentioned (something that jumped out at me as I read the article) followed by possible developments of the story. Neither of the two possibilities I settled on were damning to her or the Catholic Church.

[UCANSEE2]

“If we’re told that she’s still a virgin, things could get very interesting. “

yeah, as in “Mom, the Saint gave me a child. No, I didn’t have sex with any boy. It’s a miracle, Mom.”

[UCANSEE2]

I really think all they are ‘claiming’ is that the prayers to the Saint healed her, and the same Saint blessed her with achieving pregnancy, even though doctors had ruled that medically improbable, due to..... not being God.

[UCANSEE2]

Then I predict, either 2 or 1 will be it.

[UCANSEE2]

HI Jaded !

Ray, I agree with you. When I got through reading the article, I had the same thought. They didn’t mention the father.

I think many thought the same thing. You were just the first to say it.

And, since no good deed goes unpunished, you became the legal target for some sarcastic replies.

(am I right, Jaded?)

If your sense of humor is as high as the intelligence shown in your comments, I think you’ll be able to handle it.

[Jaded]

Hey UCANSEE2! Long time no see. How are you doing?

It appeared to me that the issue here was being pushed by the mother. It was about the fact that she wasn’t suppose to be able to get pregnant after having spent nearly two decades in the hospital.

The usual assumptions are made here:
-About the first miracle... mom got a late start in praying, bummer.
-There’s no male mentioned in the article eg: She’s some sort of tramp.

The predictable comments started around post #4.

The original article was written locally. They apparently didn’t go to the American Journalism School in Washington DC. OTOH, American journalists who went to that same school, obviously didn’t go either.

[UCANSEE2]

I’m alive, breathing, healthy. It’s my Chilean miracle.

Thanks for asking. Hope you are the same.

---

“It appeared to me that the issue here was being pushed by the mother. “

Wrong, wrong, wrong. If you look at the photo, you’ll notice she’s being pulled, not pushed.

: )

(SEE, FOLKS, THAT’S HOW IT’S DONE!!!)

---

“It was about the fact that she wasn’t suppose to be able to get pregnant after having spent nearly two decades in the hospital.”

The miracle was that she was in a coma, bedridden, for 20 years, and came out looking and being healthy.

What Hospital is this, and who was her Doctor?

The fact that a beautiful, healthy, factually innocent teenaged girl, who missed ‘everything’ during her ‘formative years’, would be seduced by some male, quickly is just life.

That just adds to the mother-daughter relationship, and the tension.

---

“The original article was written locally.”

Yeah. I think a lot was lost in translation.

---

“American journalists who went to that same school, obviously didn’t go either.”

Now, don’t go picking on them, it isn’t their fault.
They had ADD as a child.

[George from New England]

We need an update on this story. Has the child been born? Anybody know anything new?