In 1996, when Pope Francis was the auxiliary bishop of
Cardinal Quarracino in Buenos Aires, a remarkable Eucharistic miracle occurred.
The present Pope himself examined the issue and requested that the object of the
miracle be photographed. The results are amazing.
On August 18, 1996, at 7 pm, Father Alejandro Pezet was
celebrating Mass in the church that is in the center of the city. He was about
to finish distributing Holy Communion, when a woman came to tell him that she
had found a host that someone had thrown away at the back of the church. Fr.
Alejandro went to take a look and saw the host. It was in poor condition and
soiled. Because he could not consume it, he put it in a small bowl filled with
water and then placed it in the tabernacle of the chapel of the Blessed
Sacrament.
On August 26 he opened the tabernacle, and to his great
amazement he saw that the
host had become a kind of bloody substance. He informed
Mgr Jorge Bergoglio, who gave instructions to have the host photographed by
professionals. These photographs, taken on September 6th clearly
show that the host, which had become a fragment of bleeding flesh, had
significantly increased in size. For several years, the host remained in the
tabernacle, and the entire matter remained a secret. Because the host was not
undergoing any kind of visible decomposition, Mgr. Bergoglio decided to have it
scientifically analyzed.
On October 5, 1999, in the presence of Mgr. Bergoglio's
representative, (who had become Archbishop in the mean time) Dr. Castanon took
a sample of the bloody fragment and sent it to New York to be analyzed. Because
he did not want to influence the results of the examination, he decided not to
tell the team of scientists where the fragment came from.
One of the scientists was the famous cardiologist and
forensic pathologist, Dr. Frederic Zugiba. He determined that the analyzed
substance was actual flesh and blood containing human DNA. He stated that:
"The analyzed material is a fragment of the heart muscle which is found in
the wall of the left ventricle, near the valves. This is the muscle that
contracts the heart. We must remember that the left ventricle of the heart acts
as a pump that sends the blood through the entire body. The heart muscle is in a
state of inflammation and contains a large number of white blood cells. This
indicates that the heart was alive at the time when the sample was taken. I
confirm that the heart was alive, because white blood cells die outside of a
living organism. They need a live organism in order to remain alive
themselves. Therefore, their presence indicates that the heart was alive when
the sample was taken. In fact, these white blood cells had penetrated into the
tissues, which is an even stronger indication that the heart had been subjected
to intense stress, as if its owner had been severely beaten on the
chest."
Two Australians, journalist Mike Willesee and attorney
Ron Tesoriero, witnessed the tests. Knowing the origin of the sample, they were
taken aback by Dr. Zugiba's statement. Mike Willesee asked the scientist how
long the white blood cells could have stayed alive if they had come from human
tissue kept in water. Dr. Zugiba told him that they would have ceased to exist
after a few minutes. The journalist then revealed to the doctor that the
substance from which the sample was taken had first been preserved in ordinary
water for one month, and that after three years, it was preserved in a bowl
filled with demineralized water. Only then was a sample taken to be analyzed.
Dr. Zugiba was very embarrassed by this information because he said that there
was no way of explaining it scientifically.
Dr. Zugiba then asked the following question:
"Please explain the following to me: if this sample comes from a dead person,
how is it that while I was examining it, the cells of the sample were moving and
pulsating? If this heart comes from someone who was alive in 1996, how can it
still be alive?"
Only then did Mike Willesee reveal to Dr. Zugiba that
the analyzed sample came from a consecrated host (white bread with no
leavening), which had mysteriously been transformed into human flesh and blood.
Astounded by this information, Dr. Zugiba said: "How and why could a
consecrated host change its nature and become living human flesh and blood, this
will remain an inexplicable mystery for science - a mystery completely beyond
its competence."
Then, Dr. Ricardo Castanon Gomez arranged for the
laboratory reports written after the Buenos Aires miracle to be compared to the
reports that were written after the Lanciano miracle, again without revealing
the origin of the test samples. The experts who proceeded with this comparison
concluded that the two laboratory reports had analyzed test samples coming from
the same person. They further pointed out that the two samples revealed an "AB
positive" blood type. This blood had the characteristics of a man who was born
and lived in the Middle East.
Only faith in the extraordinary action of God can give a
reasonable answer! God wants us to be aware that He is truly present in the
mystery of the Eucharist. The Eucharistic miracle of Buenos Aires is an
extraordinary sign, witnessed by science. Through this sign, Jesus wishes to
awaken in us a living faith in His Real Presence in the Eucharist, real, and not
symbolic. It is only with the eyes of faith, and not with our human eyes, that
we can see Him in the form of consecrated bread and wine. In the Eucharist,
Jesus sees us and loves us and wishes to save us.
Don't miss this link, where you can read about how Dr.
Castanon, an atheist who became a Catholic, explains this miracle (in Spanish)!
http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DAPz1v8oz1ms&h=oAQGQBzhw&s=1
Sister Emmanuel