{"id":638,"date":"2009-05-22T18:08:00","date_gmt":"2009-05-22T18:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/a-maryland-miracle.html"},"modified":"2009-05-22T18:08:00","modified_gmt":"2009-05-22T18:08:00","slug":"a-maryland-miracle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/a-maryland-miracle.html","title":{"rendered":"A Maryland miracle?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hot on the heels of this news<\/a> of a possible saint in nearby New Jersey, Maryland (my home state — go Terps!) may soon make way for one, as well.<\/p>\n

From the Catholic Review<\/a> in Baltimore: <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Go home and prepare to die.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Mary Ellen Heibel\u2019s doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington told her May 11, 2004, after they discovered that the cancer that had attacked Heibel\u2019s esophagus in 2003 and then a lymph node later that year had spread throughout her body.<\/p>\n

Given about six months, the longtime parishioner of St. Mary in Annapolis underwent a new form of chemotherapy at The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore as a palliative treatment to extend her life. But doctors warned it would only postpone the inevitable.<\/p>\n

At the suggestion of a Pittsburgh priest, Heibel began praying a novena in 2005 to Blessed Francis X. Seelos \u2013 a 19th-century Redemptorist pastor of her parish who died of yellow fever in 1867 in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

One week after she began the novena at her parish, Heibel\u2019s cancer disappeared. Gone were tumors in both lungs, her liver, back and sternum. When Dr. Michael Gibson, her doctor at Hopkins, called with the news, Heibel couldn\u2019t believe it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just so excited. I called everyone,\u201d the 71-year-old mother of four remembered. \u201cI never thought in a million years this would happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Told by her doctors that the unexplained healing could not be the result of her chemotherapy, Heibel is convinced that Blessed Seelos interceded on her behalf.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know this had to be a miracle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Archdiocesan officials are now investigating whether Heibel might just be right.<\/p>\n

Archbishop Edwin F. O\u2019Brien opened an archdiocesan inquiry into the alleged healing with a May 19 Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Baltimore. The archbishop also appointed a group to investigate the case and listen to testimony from Heibel, Dr. Gibson and other witnesses.<\/p>\n

The commission\u2019s findings will be sent to Father Antonio Marrazzo, Redemptorist postulator general in Rome, who will then take them to the Vatican\u2019s Congregation of the Causes of Saints. If the healing is deemed miraculous, Blessed Seelos could be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt calls to mind the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into the building of the church of Baltimore,\u201d Archbishop O\u2019Brien said before the May 19 Mass. \u201cBlessed Seelos is typical of many priests and members of the faithful throughout the archdiocese who have taken their faith seriously and lived it faithfully and shared it with others in an inspiring way.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There’s more at the Review link<\/a>.<\/p>\n

PHOTO:<\/b><\/span> Mary Ellen Heibel sits next to a statue of Blessed Francis X. Seelos. Heibel believes her cancer was cured through Blessed Seelos\u2019 intercession. Photo by George P. Matysek, Jr.<\/span> <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hot on the heels of this news of a possible saint in nearby New Jersey, Maryland (my home state — go Terps!) may soon make way for one, as well. From the Catholic Review in Baltimore: Go home and prepare to die. That\u2019s what Mary Ellen Heibel\u2019s doctors at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hanging-with-saints"],"yoast_head":"\nA Maryland miracle? - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2009\/05\/a-maryland-miracle.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Maryland miracle? - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hot on the heels of this news of a possible saint in nearby New Jersey, Maryland (my home state — go Terps!) may soon make way for one, as well. 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