Miracles Prove Credibility of Christianity

Fr. Joseph Mary Wolfe, MFVA, said the following in a homily on EWTN on April 8, 2016:

An article of the Christian faith is that miracles are necessary to make our faith believable or Miracles are necessary to make the Christian faith to be credible.

During the time that Jesus was on earth, miracles confirmed the truth of the Gospels. Gamaliel, a Pharisee and teacher of the law respected by all the people, said in Acts 5:34-39, there were others who had a following at the time of Jesus but they faded away. In contrast, the truth of Jesus was confirmed by the miracles that Jesus performed.

In an article by Fr. John Hardin entitled Christ the Miracle Worker in the Eucharist, he said: Christ continues to perform miracles in our own day and they are necessary to make our own faith credible. Please do not forget this statement is an article of the Catholic faith. 

Fr. Joseph Mary Wolfe added on April 17, 2016 that this comes from a decree issued by Vatican Council I confirming that miracles prove the credibility of Christianity. (Fr. Wolfe, MFVA, is EWTN Chaplain/Administrator, Shrine of the Most Blessed Sacrament, Hanceville, AL.)

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FROM ACTS OF THE APOSTLES: As St. Peter said: Jesus the Nazorean was a man commended to you by God with mighty deeds, wonders, and signs, which God worked through him in your midst, as you yourselves know. (Acts 2:22)
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Excerpts from FIRST VATICAN COUNCIL (1869-1870)

Dogmatic Constitution on the Catholic faith, Chapter 3, On faith

3. Faith, declares the Apostle, is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen [Heb 11, 1].

4. Nevertheless, in order that the submission of our faith should be in accordance with reason, it was God’s will that there should be linked to the internal assistance of the Holy Spirit external indications of his revelation, that is to say divine acts, and first and foremost miracles and prophecies, which clearly demonstrating as they do the omnipotence and infinite knowledge of God, are the most certain signs of revelation and are suited to the understanding of all.

5. Hence Moses and the prophets, and especially Christ our lord himself, worked many absolutely clear miracles and delivered prophecies; while of the apostles we read: And they went forth and preached every, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it [Mk 16, 20]. Again it is written: We have the prophetic word made more sure; you will do well to pay attention to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place [2 Pt 1, 19].

Canons: 3. On faith

3. If anyone says that divine revelation cannot be made credible by external signs, and that therefore men and women ought to be moved to faith only by each one’s internal experience or private inspiration: let him be anathema.

4. If anyone says that all miracles are impossible, and that therefore all reports of them, even those contained in Sacred Scripture, are to be set aside as fables or myths; or that miracles can never be known with certainty, nor can the divine origin of the Christian religion be proved from them: let him be anathema. 

READ MORE AT: https://www.ewtn.com/library/councils/v1.htm
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Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J. PhD., believes that Near Death Experiences (NDEs) are one of the evidences of the existence of God. He has found that many young adults, who have left their faith, are affected in very positive ways by credible miracles and NDEs. He discusses several well-investigated NDEs in chapter 5 of his book The Soul’s Upward Yearning (2015). See also video interview on EWTN: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NI_MVhE-5xs.

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Miracles as a Requirement for Beatifications and Canonizations

EXCERPTS FROM: Christ to Catholicism by Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J.

PART ONE: APOLOGETIC FOUNDATIONS, IV. Recognizing the True Church

Miracles as the Fruit of Sanctity. No matter how convincing the evidence of heroic virtue in a Servant of God, the Church will not proceed to his beatification until physical miracles, scientifically proved, had been wrought through the person’s intercession. [16] Two, three, or four miracles are required, depending on the kind of testimony that was used in the canonical process, i.e., whether eye or ear-witnesses, or mere documents. One prescription from Canon Law illustrates the care exercised in testing miraculous phenomena. “In order to prove the miracles, two experts are to be hired expressly for this purpose when the case first opens; and if they agree that phenomenon is not miraculous, it must be discarded forthwith. (Moreover) since it often happens that in discussing miracles there is question of passing judgment on a cure, the experts must be outstanding in the field of medicine or surgery. In fact, if at all possible, they should be chosen from among specialists in the diagnosis and treatment of the disease which is supposed to have been miraculously cured.” [17] Centuries may intervene before the requisite miracles take place. They are indispensable. However, once beatified, more miracles are needed, two or three depending on the type of beatification. And again, two or more hundred years may elapse without fully attested miracles. Until they occur, clearly through the intercession of the prospective saint, he is not canonized. The number of people raised to the honors of the altar varies with different periods of the Church’s history. Pope Pius XI beatified 406 men and women, and canonized 40.

But miracles in canonical processes are not the only kind that God works through the merits of His saints, in attestation of the Church’s sanctity. Equally numerous and better known are the phenomena which occur at famous shrines like Lourdes and St. Anne de Beaupre.

At Lourdes, annual average since 1858 is 78 cures declared at the time of occurrence as naturally inexplicable. Of these 4 have been further subjected to rigorous testing over a period of several years after the reported miracle and found absolutely beyond the powers of nature. [18] Among the unbiased witnesses of what happens at Lourdes in the late Alexis Carrel, Nobel Prize winner in 1912 for work on vascular ligature and grafting blood vessels and other organs. The experience of watching one of his patients suddenly cured of tubercular peritonitis while praying at the shrine prompted this commentary on the power of prayer at Lourdes. “In surroundings where men pray, there are frequent reports of cures being obtained in response to supplications addressed to God and His saints. The Medical Bureau at Lourdes has rendered a great service to science in demonstrating the reality of such cures. Sick people have been healed almost instantly of such afflictions as lupus of the face, cancer, kidney infections, ulcers, pulmonary and peritoneal tuberculosis, and tuberculosis of the bone. The phenomenon nearly always occurs in the same way. First great pain, then the feeling of being cured. In a few seconds, or at most a couple of hours, the symptoms disappear and lesions are automatically repaired. The miracle is characterized by an extreme acceleration of the normal processes of healing. Never has such acceleration been observed among surgeons and physiologists in the course of their clinical experience.” [19] Carrel’s experience at Lourdes, when publicized, first cost him a temporary loss of prestige in the medical profession and later contributed to his conversion from agnosticism.

Footnotes:
16. Though normally one or two miracles are required for the beatification of martyrs, the pope may dispense from this obligation. However there is no dispensation from miracles for canonizing a beatus, whether he was martyred or not. Canon 2118, parag. 1-2.
17. “Lista de las Curaciones on Lourdes Reconocidas por la Iglesia como Milagrosas,” Ecclesia, Madrid, Feb. 8, 1958, pp. 146-148.
18. Alexis Carrel, La Priere, Paris, 1944, pp. 26-27.

READ MORE AT: http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Church_Dogma/Church_Dogma_026.htm
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Miracles and Prophecies at Fatima, Portugal  

On May 13, 1917 in Fatima, Portugal, three children, were tending a flock of sheep when suddenly they saw a woman, brighter than the sun, appear with rays of intense light. The lady said “I am from Heaven” and she had come to ask for prayer, penance and conversion, so there might be peace in the world. She told them she would come to them for the next five months and give them messages of hope, but also of warning. She asked the children to “Pray the Rosary every day, in order to obtain peace in the world”, and identified herself, saying “I am the Lady of the Rosary.”

The children, Lucia dos Santos (age 9) and her two cousins, Saints Francisco (age 7) and Jacinta Marto (age 8), had apparitions of an angel in 1916 and of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1917. Mary urged praying the Rosary and penance for the conversion of sinners. Lucia became a Dorothean Sister in 1934 in Spain and later felt a call to more prayer, becoming  a  Discalced  Carmelite  in  1948,  as  Sister Maria Lucia at Coimbra, Portugal. The Catholic Church approved Fatima Oct. 13, 1930. Sister Lucia, who continued receiving apparitions from Mary while she was in the convent, died at age 97 on Feb. 13, 2005.

Predictions by Our Lady of Fatima that came true:

1) Prediction of June 13, 1917:   Mary told Lucia, I will take Francisco and Jacinta  soon, but you must remain on earth for some time.
FULFILLMENT: Francisco died from the Spanish flu on April 4, 1919. Jacinta died on Feb. 20, 1920 from the flu and pleurisy.

2) Predictions of July 13, 1917: Mary said, The war … [World War I – 1914 – 1918] … is going to end. But if people do not stop offending God, another and worse one will begin in the reign of Pius XI… [Pope from 1922 – 1939] … When you shall see a night illuminated by an unknown light know that this is the great sign that God gives you… that He is going to punish the world for its many crimes by means of war…
FULFILLMENT: On January 25-26, 1938 from 9 pm to 2 am, there appeared over the Northern Hemisphere a very unusual light that scared many people. The New York Times devoted almost an entire page to the event. Scientists attributed it to an exceptional aurora borealis. Within two months of the sign, in March 1938, Hitler invaded his first country, Austria.

3)  Another Prediction of July 13, 1917: Mary said, If people attend to my requests, Russia will be converted and the world will have peace. If not, she [Russia] will scatter her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church. The good will be martyred, the Holy Father will have much to suffer, and various nations will be destroyed.
FULFILLMENT: The three visionaries did not even know what Russia was. In July 1917, Russia was a poor, militarily weak and war devastated nation. The Communists took power by surprise in November of 1917 yet the Blessed Mother told the children what would happen and it did. Russia scattered her errors throughout the world, provoking wars and persecutions of the Church.

4) Prediction of September 13, 1917: Mary said:  “In October I shall perform a miracle so that everyone may believe.”
FULFILLMENT: On October 13, 1917, more than 70,000 people, both believers and critics, gathered at Fatima in terrible rainy weather. Many newspaper reporters were there to record the miracle or prove the children were lying. The crowd was standing in a pouring rain in a muddy field. Our Lady appeared to the three children and said, I am the Lady of the Rosary, I have come to warn the faithful to amend their lives and ask for pardon for their sins. They must not offend Our Lord any more, for He is already too grievously offended by the sins of men. People must say the Rosary. Let them continue saying it everyday. She added that the war will end soon and that the soldiers would not be long in returning to their homes. As Our Lady was about to leave she pointed to the sun and Lucia cried out, Look at the sun! The rain stopped and the clouds parted and the sun began to whirl in the sky, scattering rays of multicolored light and lighting up the entire countryside. The sun whirled for three minutes, stopped and, then, resumed again a second and third time lasting a total of twelve minutes. The sun spun faster each time and at the end seemed to tear itself from the sky and began plunging to earth. The crowd was on their knees, terrified, asking pardon for their sins fearing that the end of the world was at hand. At the last moment the sun halted its descent and returned to its normal position. The miracle ended with the rain soaked earth and people’s clothes now being completely dry. Portugal newspapers covered it, such as, O Seculo (a pro-government Lisbon paper) wrote:  …the sun danced according to the typical expression of the people….The great majority admitted to having seen the trembling and the dancing of the sun….

Pope Pius XII Saw Miracle of the Sun – In 2008, Zenit and others reported that the Pope who declared the dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary saw the miracle of the sun four times, as confirmed by a handwritten note from Servant of God Pope Pius XII, found in the Pacelli family archives. It describes the miracle of the sun, an event that until today had only been affirmed by Cardinal Federico Tedeschini (d.1959), who recounted in a homily that the Holy Father had seen the miracle. Pius XII wrote, I have seen the miracle of the sun, this is the pure truth. He said he considered this a confirmation of his plan to declare the dogma of the Assumption.  The papal note says that at 4 p.m. on Oct. 30, 1950, during his habitual walk in the Vatican Gardens, reading and studying, having arrived to the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, I was awestruck by a phenomenon that before now I had never seen. The globe of the sun rotated and it was possible to look at it in a fixed way, he wrote. Pius XII said he saw the same phenomenon the Oct. 31and Nov. 1, 1950, the day of the definition of the dogma of the Assumption, and then again Nov. 8 (Octave of the ceremony), and after that, no more. (Zenit, Nov. 4, 2008)

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2017 was 100^th Anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima

From May 13 through October 13, 2017, the world  celebrated the 100 year anniversary of the apparitions of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima in 1917 in which she promised: In the end, my Immaculate Heart will triumph.

For more information on the Miracle of the Sun in Fatima, Portugal in 1917, see:

Washington Post Article- Our Lady of Fatima: The Virgin Mary promised three kids a miracle that 70,000 gathered to see –Oct. 13, 2017– at https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/retropolis/wp/2017/10/13/our-lady-of-fatima-the-virgin-mary-promised-three-kids-a-miracle-that-70000-gathered-to-see/?utm_term=.c76462309a69

UK Catholic Herald- How the Miracle of the Sun dazzled the sceptics by Donal Anthony Foley -12 Oct 2017- 100 years ago unbelievers flocked to Fatima, hoping to see the Church humiliated. They were in for disappointment… http://www.catholicherald.co.uk/issues/october-13th-2017/how-the-miracle-of-the-sun-dazzled-the-sceptics/  

See also articles by Diana Von Glahn, Fatima and the Miracle of the Sun –Oct. 13, 2014– at http://catholicexchange.com/fatima-miracle-sun

Fatima Prayers:

My God, I believe, I adore, I hope and I love Thee! I beg pardon for those who do not believe, do not adore, do not hope and do not love Thee. (Prayer taught by the Angel of Peace to the three children during the 1916 apparition.)

Most Holy Trinity, I adore Thee! My God, my God, I love Thee in the Most Blessed Sacrament. (May 13, 1917 apparition)

O My Jesus, it is for love of Thee, in reparation for the offenses committed against the Immaculate Heart of Mary and for the conversion of poor sinners. (July 13, 1917 apparition)

O my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, lead all souls to Heaven, especially those who have the most need of your mercy. (July 13, 1917 apparition)
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