Phoenix, Ariz., Mar 29, 2017 / 11:01 am (National Catholic Register).- When a Phoenix mother lost her eyesight due to a rare medical condition, she feared she would never be able to see her four children again. But then St. Charbel came to her aid.
Dafne Gutierrez suffered from benign intracranial hypertension (BIH), a condition that causes increased pressure in the brain. In 2012, the increased pressure caused her to lose vision in her right eye. Three years later, in November 2015, the Catholic mother lost sight in her left eye, as well.
Phoenix’s local CBS affiliate, KPHO, quoted Gutierrez’s plea to God:
“For me, I was like, ‘Please God, let me see those faces again. Let me be their mother again.’ Because I feel like [my kids] were watching me, taking care of me 24/7.”
Phoenix Mother: St. Charbel Cured My Blindness https://t.co/J9FXeruQUR
— N. Catholic Register (@NCRegister) March 25, 2017
For more than a year, Gutierrez struggled to adjust to her disability, which now included occasional seizures, as well as blindness. Then, in January 2016, when Phoenix’s St. Joseph Maronite Church announced that the relics of St. Charbel Makhlouf (also spelled “Sharbel”) would be visiting the church, Gutierrez’s sister encouraged her to visit and to pray for the saint’s intercession.
Although she is not a member of the Maronite rite, Gutierrez visited the church Jan. 16, prayed before the relics, went to confession and was blessed with holy oil by the pastor, Father Wissam Akiki. Gutierrez recalled that, immediately afterward, her body felt “different.”
The following morning, she rose and returned to the church for Sunday Mass. Again, she experienced a different sensation.
And early in the morning Jan. 18, Gutierrez awoke with a searing pain in her eyes. She remembers how much they burned. And when her husband turned on the lights, she said the brightness hurt her eyes. She claimed, at 4 a.m., that she could see shadows; but her husband insisted that was impossible because she was blind. He later described what he called “an odor of burned meat” coming from her nostrils.
According to The Maronite Voice, the newsletter of the Maronite Eparchies of the U.S., “That morning she called her ophthalmologist, and she was evaluated the next day. Her exam showed that she was still legally blind, with abnormal optic nerves. Two days later, she saw a different ophthalmologist, and her vision was a perfect 20/20, with completely normal optic nerves. Subsequently, she saw her original ophthalmologist one week later, and her vision was documented to be normal, with completely normal exam.”
No Medical Explanation
Dr. Anne Borik, a board-certified internal medicine physician who later testified regarding Gutierrez’s healing, was called in by the Church to review the case. Earlier this month, Borik – a member of St. Timothy’s Roman Catholic parish nearby, but who attends St. Joseph Maronite frequently – talked by phone with the Register about her findings. She explained that the brain condition Gutierrez suffered from causes the optic nerve to constrict. Once the optic disc – the spot at which the optic nerve enters the eyeball – is damaged, it’s too late to fix. Because, when the pressure in the brain reaches high levels, as it did in Gutierrez’s case, the optic nerves become strangulated.
“Unfortunately, once the blindness occurs,” said Borik, “it’s irreversible.”
Images of Gutierrez’s optic disc revealed significant damage: “We have pictures,” said Borik, “to confirm that the optic disc was chronically atrophied. There was significant swelling, or papilledema.”
But after Gutierrez’s vision returned, Borik reported, there was no evidence of the aberrations that were evident on earlier images. “In the post-healing pictures,” Borik said, “her optic disc is back to normal. Her vision is completely restored. She has no more seizures. That is why I, as a medical doctor, have no explanation.”
A medical committee, led by Borik, undertook a thorough review of Gutierrez’s medical records, as well as repeated examinations. The committee wrote, “After a thorough physical exam, extensive literature search and review of all medical records, we have no medical explanation and therefore believe this to be a miraculous healing through the intercession of St. Charbel.”
Unexpected Healing Strengthens Faith
Borik is enthusiastic about the healing, telling the National Catholic Register, “It has changed my practice! It has changed how I relate to patients. Now,” she said, referring to her relationship with those entrusted to her care, “prayer is such an important part of what we do.”
Father Wissam Akiki, pastor of St. Joseph Maronite Church, had a devotion to St. Charbel, and he installed a large picture of the saint in the parish shortly after his arrival in 2014. Then, in 2016, he arranged to bring St. Charbel’s relics to his parish as part of a U.S. tour.
Father Akiki remembers when Gutierrez showed up to venerate the relics. Father Akiki approached her. “I heard her confession,” he told the National Catholic Register. “We prayed together, and I said to her daughter, ‘Take care of your mom, and your mom is going to see you soon.’ Then, in only three days, she called the church to report that she could see.”
Father Akiki acknowledged that Gutierrez’s healing has strengthened the faith and changed the face of St. Joseph Maronite Church. “People are coming here to pray, traveling from Germany, Bolivia, Canada, Australia, Jerusalem.”
Following the healing, Father Akiki planned to erect a shrine to St. Charbel at his parish, with a two-ton sculpture of the saint cut from a single stone and imported from Lebanon. The shrine will be open seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Father Akiki expected that the dedication of the shrine March 26 would draw crowds, including Maronite Bishop A. Elias Zaidan, Phoenix Bishop Thomas Olmsted and many local dignitaries.
Bishop Zaidan attributed Gutierrez’s recovery to the intercession of St. Charbel. “May this healing of the sight of Dafne,” he wrote in The Maronite Voice, “be an inspiration for all of us to seek the spiritual sight, in order to recognize the will of God in our lives and to act accordingly.”
Cristofer Pereyra, director of the Hispanic Office of the Phoenix Diocese, told Fox News that Bishop Olmsted spoke with the doctors and reviewed the case. “The bishop wanted to make sure there was no scientific explanation for the miraculous recovery of Dafne’s sight,” Pereyra reported.
The greatest change, of course, has been for Gutierrez and her children. Since her eyesight was restored, Dafne’s life has changed dramatically: She can once again check her children’s homework, watch them at play with friends, and manage her household chores without extra assistance.
Her prayer was answered.
Who Was St. Charbel?
Born Youssef Antoun Makhlouf in the high mountains of northern Lebanon in 1828, St. Charbel (also spelled Sharbel) was the youngest of five children in a poor but religious family. His baptismal name was Joseph; only when he entered a monastery at the age of 23 was he given the name Charbel, after an early martyr. He studied in seminary and was ordained a priest in 1858. For 16 years, Father Charbel lived with his brother priests; theirs was a communal life of prayer and devotion to God.
In 1875, Father Charbel was granted permission to live a hermit’s life. In his rugged cabin, for the next 23 years, he practiced mortification and sacrifice – often wearing a hair shirt, sleeping on the ground, and eating only one meal a day. The Eucharist was the focus of his life. The holy priest celebrated daily Mass at 11 a.m., spending the morning in preparation and the rest of the day in thanksgiving.
Father Charbel was 70 years old when he suffered a seizure while celebrating Mass. A priest assisting him was forced to pry the Eucharist out of his rigid hands. He never regained consciousness; and eight days later, on Christmas Eve in 1898, Father Charbel died. His body was interred in the ground without a coffin and without embalming, according to the monks’ custom, dressed in the full habit of the order.
For the next 45 nights, a most unusual event occurred: According to many local townspeople, an extraordinarily bright light appeared above his tomb, lighting the night sky. Finally, after the mysterious light persisted, officials at the monastery petitioned the ecclesiastical authorities for permission to exhume Charbel’s body. When the grave was opened four months after Charbel’s death, his body was found to be incorrupt. Twenty-eight years after his death, in 1928, and again in 1950, the grave was reopened, and his body was also found to be without decay.
Numerous medical researchers were permitted to examine the remains, and all confirmed that the saint’s body was preserved from decay. For 67 years, the body remained intact, even when left outdoors unprotected for an entire summer – although it consistently gave off a liquid that had the odor of blood. Finally, though, Charbel’s body followed the natural course. When the tomb was again opened at the time of his beatification in 1965, it was found to be decayed, except for the skeleton, which was deep red in color.
The inexplicable restoration of Dafne Gutierrez’s eyesight is not the first healing credited to St. Charbel. Dr. Anne Borik reported that there have been hundreds – perhaps thousands – of miracles attributed to the saint.
Pope Francis is said to have a deep devotion to St. Charbel. Last Christmas, Borik reported, the Holy Father asked to have a relic of St. Charbel sewn into the hem of his vestments.
This story was originally published at the National Catholic Register.
[…]
Mass of reparation….have fr rippinger back [he was just there] to exercise the building and rededicate it…and remove the faculties of the priest…[who may need an exorcism himself…]
There are reports that the Mass of Reparation does reconsecrate the cathedral, despite the official statement from its pastor not making that clear. Example: this story at The Postmillennial:
NYC Cathedral offers official Mass of Reparation to reconsecrate St Patrick’s after outcry over trans activist funeral
Yes! That would be a fantastic move!
Now will the Archdiocese rewrite its policies, which seem to allow congregants to take control of liturgies, so that such a scandal cannot reoccur?
As long as eulogizing is allowed at a funeral, rather than being limited to a non-church wake where it belongs, we’ll see such scandals continuing. This one is only more egregious than what is common.
In our parish you/someone in family have/has to generally be a member for a funeral; there’s quite a few where there’s a service at the funeral home/graveside if they’ve fallen away. A priest or deacon usually presides.
Is this somehow following the recent ‘blessings are okay’ directive?
Why does the secular world want to use our facilities for such strange events or videotaping for “artists” that also happened recently?
The decision to do this outrageous blasphemy was given permission for Dolan, he should resign immediately! But this just shows how diabolical the LGBTQ crowd are! They want things like this to show contempt to the Church and her Sacraments, since they are totally dedicated to the world, the flesh and the devil!!!
Doesn’t the priest or the funeral home, presumably in accord with the parish, meet with the family to plan the funeral – the visitation, the procession, the readings, the hymns, etc.?
Was this person a parishioner? Can anybody just walk in off the street and demand a “celebration of life”?
Rev. Salvo says that they “didn’t know” what these people had planned.
I for one DON’T believe that, and, if it IS true – there is NO excuse for their ignorance.
You cannot “request “a funeral mass. Money has to change hands. How much did it cost to sell catholic values?????
Who paid? Who accepted the payment without proper vetting?
Deep connections have to be involved.
A “sorry” mass cannot be the end of it!
I imagine that Cardinal Dolan himself approved the service in St Patrick’s Cathedral. Perhaps he thought that it would be more “normal” than it turned out? Well, I think that he must be embarrassed about the whole thing now. Does he owe an apology to the Catholics of the Archdiocese of New York? It might be wise to do so.
Fr. Edward is the culprit who encouraged, profane, and participated in the sacrilegious mass. He was the celebrant, leader, and shepherd leading all these folks into grave egregious mortal sin. Father Edward Dougherty must be admonished appropriately to his actions.
Or was this clandestinely approved by the Vatican for a fellow countrymen from Argentina?
Are the “wild beasts” located in the Vatican?
Tragic and unnecessary failure to protect the faithful
Matthew 23:9-11 KJV And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant.
Incredibly irreverent. Somebody of note took payment for this charade, without regard to what planned intentions were.
Why didn’t the celebrant of the funeral mass put a stop to it when he saw what was happening?? And why has Cardinal Dolan not made a public statement and apology to Catholics in the US? It is becoming increasingly more difficult to remain a faithful Catholic in light of what’s been going on since Covid. The church did nothing and continues to marginalize the faithful while applauding the radicals.
I read elsewhere that where as the original plan was for a mass, during the “celebration” the director of liturgy saw what was going on and informed the presiding priest to limit it to a simple service instead of a mass. I hope that was the case. Inappropriate regardless.
I cannot understand how this was allowed to continue throughout its entirety. This should have been stopped at the first mention or sight of anything subversive. Throughout all of these videos I kept wondering the same thing, ‘why is the presiding authority not demanding cessation and those taking part out of the church?’ Let us all pray for the intercession of the saints of the past who fought heresy without fear and stood face to face against those who persecuted them. Mother Mary, pray for us!
It’s important to note that this sacrilege is the direct result of Bergoglio’s apostatic directive, ‘Sfiducia Supplicans.’
I fear we have a pope who is in the service of an unholy spirit.
We read: “’At [Archbishop Cardinal Timothy Dolan’s] directive, we have offered an appropriate Mass of Reparation,’ Salvo said. [AND] Several mainstream media outlets had framed the event as a breakthrough occasion and a sign of the Catholic Church shifting its teaching — or at least its tone — on sexuality and human anthropology.”
Reparation after the fact? What about foresight and guardianship?
Yours truly recalls a high cleric from New York who confided (on EWTN) about endorsing Obama Care only to find six months later that the conscientious objection clause had been deleted. “They lied to me,” he said. Of course!!! Why is it that pious clerics are the last to notice in advance the web of mendacity in a fallen world?
Happily, about “tone,” we now see what we need from continental Africa and and many other points of surviving coherence across the globe, but from the inner circle what do we still get: a “tone” that is out of tune, a “blessing” that is not a blessing, a “couple” that is not a couple, a doctrinally “universal Church” that in practice is not universal, and likely endorsement from a “synod” that is not a synod…
Instead, this: “When Jesus sent His disciples out into the world which was full of the ambushes of evil, He told them, ‘Be ye therefore, wise as serpents and simple as doves’ (Mt 10:16). By mentioning the two virtues, prudence and simplicity, together, He clearly shows that they must never be separated from one another, nor should one be used as a pretext for failing in the other” (Fr. Gabriel of St. Mary Magdalen, OCD, “Divine Intimacy,” 1964/1996).
Given the insidiousness of evil and even infiltration into the Church, needed training for bishops might well include a seminar on Mt. 10:16 and counterinsurgency.
CARDINAL DOLAN MUST MAKE A PUBLIC STATEMENT OIF REPENTANCE AND RECOMMITMENT