Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Feb. 1–The last ruler of the Austro-Hungarian Empire moved a little closer to Roman Catholic sainthood Thursday, thanks to a Baptist woman from Kissimmee who claims the monarch’s intercession saved her from metastatic breast cancer.
Emperor Karl von Habsburg, beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2004, needs a Vatican-approved miracle to be canonized, the final step to sainthood. The Central Florida woman claims she was cured of terminal cancer after she prayed to Karl of Austria to intercede with Jesus on her behalf.
The Kissimmee woman, who remains a devout Baptist, attended a Mass and ceremony at St. James Cathedral Chapel on Thursday, but she would not be identified or interviewed. Bishop Thomas Wenski, who celebrated the Mass, said the matter involved discretion rather than secrecy.
However, Paula Melancon, a Catholic from Baton Rouge, said after the ceremony that she had become interested in Karl while traveling with her husband in Europe. She sent the emperor’s prayer cards to a number of relatives and friends, one of which found its way to Kissimmee, where the cancer sufferer was near death.
“It is an honor for our diocese to be part of something that is larger than all of us,” Wenski said. “Miracles are not done for show. Jesus didn’t do miracles because he was a showoff.”
A judicial tribunal convened by the Diocese of Orlando and officially concluded Thursday has found that there is no medical explanation for the woman’s dramatic recovery, and more than half a dozen doctors in two states — most of them non-Catholics — agreed.
Who is this saint-in-waiting?
Karl took the throne in 1916, during World War I, reigning as Charles I of Austria and Charles IV of Hungary. A pious Catholic who opposed the war, he was forced to abdicate in 1918, when his empire collapsed, and died of the flu in exile on the island of Madeira in 1922 at the age of 34. Among his accomplishments, Karl censored obscene materials, closed soldiers’ brothels during World War I and sent the troops more chaplains. Until his death, he tried to regain the throne of Hungary.
Few argue that Karl was a political or diplomatic success as a leader.
“He was well-intentioned, but he was ineffectual,” said Vladimir Solonari, a University of Central Florida history professor.
But church officials and observers of the sainthood process say that is not the issue.
“It’s fair to say you have a failed emperor who is being canonized,” said Bert Ghezzi of Winter Park, author of Voices of the Saints. “But the criteria are not success in the political or secular arena. The church looks at how the person behaved in a Christian way. Did they live wholly for God? He lived a holy life — and that’s what people do, except that he’s a Habsburg emperor.”
After Mass, the sealed findings were turned over by Wenski to Andrea Ambrosi, an Italian lawyer who is Karl’s chief advocate. On the table near the documents, which were sealed with red wax, was a reliquary containing a piece of Karl’s rib. The documents now go via the Vatican’s diplomatic pouch to Rome and the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, where more scrutiny will follow.
Ambrosi said it is highly unusual for the person claiming the miracle to be a non-Catholic.
The 16-month process of investigating the miracle claim was a first for the Diocese of Orlando.
“We didn’t have any knowledge of the process,” said the Rev. Fernando Gil, the diocese’s judicial vicar, a situation that required him to do “a lot of study and a lot of reading.”
The doctors who testified, Gil said, “would never admit there was a miracle.”
However, they could find no medical explanation for the recovery — which is the standard Rome requires to accept the evidence. Informally, Gil served as the tribunal’s “devil’s advocate,” a Vatican position that no longer exists.
While the medical miracles play a central role in the Church’s sainthood process, so does money. Some experts say this may especially be true in Blessed Karl’s case. Ambrosi, who does not work for the Vatican or any order or religious organization, said he is employed by the Habsburg family.
“You can’t buy a halo, but the process for getting someone canonized takes a lot of time and effort and work to do the research,” said the Rev. Tom Reese, senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University. “That costs money.”
There are, he said, larger issues.
“This is the kind of canonization I don’t think is terribly helpful,” said Reese, a Jesuit and former editor of the magazine America. “We don’t need any more kings or princes or bishops . . . We need to find saints that connect to ordinary people.
“The cult of beautiful people and royalty and superstars — that should not be what the church is about.”
Mark I. Pinsky can be reached at mpinsky@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5589.
Copyright (c) 2008, The Orlando Sentinel, Fla.
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posted February 1, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Some folks will believe anything. You pay your money, you get your saint. Apparently as devout royalty, closing brothels,censoring obscene materials and sending troops more chaplains plus dying at 34 AND having family with money, can perhaps make you a saint. Oh, and being prayed to for a cure for a disease helps. Like he had anything to do with the Baptist woman who claims that he is responsible for her terminal cancer leaving. Cancers have been known to go into remission…only to return later. Would like to know if this woman is still cancer free 20 years from now.
posted February 1, 2008 at 4:20 pm
We don’t need no stinking denomination here in Florida. We cross all lines without concern. I have been waiting for a Catholic Baptist cross over for quite some time.
posted February 1, 2008 at 8:42 pm
Seems we might expect a rock star saint any year now.
posted February 2, 2008 at 12:40 am
I think Bono is campaigning for that now. Mabey Elvis if he would just stop showing up at 7-11′s
posted February 2, 2008 at 10:08 am
Saints are all around us, but I can’t think of any other religion that names them though, but the RCC.
posted February 2, 2008 at 12:08 pm
The Central Florida woman claims she was cured of terminal cancer after she prayed to Karl of Austria to intercede with Jesus on her behalf. Mat 27:52 And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, Act 9:32 And it came to pass, as Peter passed throughout all quarters, he came down also to the saints which dwelt at Lydda.Rom 12:13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality. The Bible proves that the Saints are not only the ones that are dead and will rise again but also the Saints of God who are still alive. We need not any man to be given a title of Saint for we who believe in Christ are all saints. This woman is confused on who healed her. It was not a man named karl but Jesus Christ our Lord. ars
posted February 2, 2008 at 1:05 pm
A.R. the Bible proves nothing. The Bible was written by men for their own purposes and edited by other men for theirs and pieces picked out and canonized by other men for political gain and gain in religious power. So anyone who thinks he can prove anything beyond the existence of gravity using the Bible is foolish.
posted February 2, 2008 at 1:55 pm
Your’re right Rev. A.R., Lord Jesus Christ, or God heals, not the one who is the intercessor for the person who is requesting prayer for a healing. The ill person is seeking help from her faith in God, now that she’s been told there is no hope from the doctors. She was healed and science can give no reason for this, and if it had been myself I’d feel I had a miracle. If it had been anyone of the loved ones I have lost I’d feel the same. No doubt this woman in the article prayed many times herself for a healing, and when the prayer card was sent to her something in her self said do it and seek what you desire.
posted February 2, 2008 at 5:27 pm
‘there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.’ 1 Timothy 2:5
The Lord Jesus said “I am the way the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father but by Me” John 14:6
The Lord Jesus said, “If you ask Me anything in My Name, I will do it” John 14:14
The lady seems to have taken the long way round!
posted February 2, 2008 at 7:08 pm
Joan because you and I are Christians we believe this. Here’s a story: (When you’re a sr. citizen you have lots of stories) In the 70′s my family was at a healing service one evening in our hometown. We had many students who attended a college from Iran and Iraq at this time of history. A young man (student) went to a teen group club at this church that our daughter went to, she had leukemia, and was in remission. Anyway he liked our daughter, and knew we were praying for a complete healing for her. He said to me, “I’m not a Christian, I’m a Muslim and in my family we have had miracle healings from Mohammad. I missed his meaning at the time, but I felt his great compassion and sincerity for all of us at that time. Do you think his families healings didn’t come from God, because they believed in Mohammad? All things come from one God.
posted February 3, 2008 at 11:03 am
The other thing is this. Often things happen and we ascribe it to the miraculous because we do not know the reason or mechanism by which it happened. It could be that, in 150 years or so, the complex processes of cancer will be fully understood, and the reason why this person was “healed” will be known. Thus, it might not be a “miracle,” but rather an entirely organic ocurrance which we just do not understand as of yet.
A miracle, by definition, is something which happens without having any possibility of happening at all. Cancers do go into remission for “no reason at all” with or without prayer. A true miracle would be if, for example, somone were to have his head chopped off, as in a guillotine, and not die. THAT would be a “miracle.” Another one would be if someone flapped their arms, and was able to fly. Or, if someone were to be dropped into a vat of acid, and live without any mark at all.
Prayer and “miracles” of the sort described in the article just do not meet this standard, and thus have other, non-Divine origins.
posted February 3, 2008 at 11:38 am
PurpleKU77, I don’t think you understand the true nature of cancer and what it and chemo, and radiation does to your body. If someone is in the early stages of cancer, remissions occur. If your body has been ravaged by months and years of the disease and medical intervention you now have more physical problems then when you started. If you were to have a remission at this point you would not jump out of bed raring to go! I don’t believe anyone when they get to the point of this woman in the article has a remission. She was miraculously made well by something, and you’re right perhaps some day this will be able to be explained. For now lets give God the nod.
posted February 3, 2008 at 3:20 pm
I’m glad she got cured but, like PKU77 I’m reluctant to give credit to a deity that doesn’t show itself, especially when there are simpler alternative explanations.
But with the Super Bowl looming, let me point out what would be another miracle. Football players can credit their god for their achievements all they want, but we all know they work their buns off to be able to do those things. A miracle would be if an aging couch potato like me made a touchdown in the Super Bowl, say a run-back of 80 yards or so. That would be a miracle. Do not be fooled by cheap imitations.
posted February 5, 2008 at 1:16 pm
This is so strange… I once wrote a paper on Emperor Karl’s peace intiatives during the first world war, and he was a very good man, yes but my goodness, curing baptists of cancer in Florida?
My question about saints is… giving that multiple people pray to them, but only a few “get results”, doesn’t that make them a bit temperamental and cruel?