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Catholic Diocese of Palm Beach
PONDER THIS! Three Eucharistic Miracles. Real
Presence Challenges Science By Patti Armstrong
Click here for Complete Printable Article Ron Tesoriero, a Catholic lawyer and
documentary maker from Australia, has considered the scientific
findings from three Eucharistic miracles and is using them to
present an argument that challenges prevailing scientific thought
on the creation and evolution of life. He examines three well-documented Eucharistic
miracles that uphold the Catholic faith in the
Real Presence, while providing powerful evidence that what was
previously bread had transformed into living heart tissue and that
complex life has cous into existence spontaneously from non-living
matter.
In an interview with National Register
correspondent Patti Armstrong, Tesoriero said that these
events could change the underpinnings of modern biological
science. “The scientific findings on these cases has enabled us to
formulate a novel argument that goes to the very question of the
origin and evolution of life,” he said. According to him, the standard set out
by Charles Darwin, the father of the theory of evolution, is no
longer tenable because it states that all life forms of Earth
today are the product of an evolutionary process over billions of
years and must have evolved from a single, ancient cell created by
chance. Darwin claimed in his book The
Origin of Species: “If it could be demonstrated that any
complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would
absolutely break down.” Miraculous Findings In two events in Sokolka,
Poland, on Oct. 12, 2008, and in Buenos
Aires, Argentina, on Aug. 18, 1996, consecrated
Communion Hosts were found discarded. They were put into water and
locked in tabernacles to dissolve before being properly disposed.
Instead of dissolving, however, they transformed into human heart
tissue. Under the microscope, those human heart cells showed
evidence of being alive and even revealed details of the kind of
injury that the heart had suffered. The third Eucharistic miracle Tesoriero looked at was
from Lanciano,
Italy. It was there, in A.D. 750, in full view of
the congregation, that a consecrated Host changed into flesh, and
the wine turned literally into human blood. In the Buenos Aires case, Tesoriero was
central to the investigation and documented it on video. In 1999,
Pope Francis, then-Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio, ordered a
scientific investigation. He had the Host professionally
photographed and scientifically analyzed. One of the scientists,
Dr. Frederick Zugibe, a well-known cardiologist and forensic
pathologist, determined it was a fragment of the heart muscle from
the wall of the left ventricle. It was found to be in an
inflammatory condition, with a large number of white blood cells,
indicating that the heart was alive when the sample was taken.
There was also evidence of cardiac trauma, from the extent white
blood cells were present and by the appearance of the muscle
structure. Zugibe had said: “The heart of the person from which
this tissue has come has been injured and has suffered trauma. …
This is the sort of injury I see in cases where someone has been
beaten severely around the chest. … The sample shows evidence of
having come from a living person, not a dead person.” When he learned the
source of the sample, and that it had been kept in water for three
years, he said there was no way to explain that scientifically. The lab reports from the Buenos Aires
miracle were then compared with the ones in Italy, from almost
1,250 years earlier. The Conventual Friars Minor had requested a
modern scientific examination of the sample in 1971. The tissue
was identified as heart muscle. Although the samples were 13
centuries old, they showed no sign of decomposition.
Interestingly, the heart muscle appeared to be from the same part of the heart as was found in the
Buenos Aires case. On Oct. 12, 2008, in the Church of St.
Anthony, in Sokolka, Poland, when Father Jacek Ingielewicz
accidentally dropped a consecrated Host, he followed the same procedure as in
Buenos Aires, placing it in water and locking it in the
tabernacle. Instead of dissolving, a red stain appeared, and it
soon developed into what appeared to be human flesh. On Jan. 5,
2009, two respected scientists from the Medical University of
Biaslystok were asked to conduct independent analysis. Again, heart tissue was identified, showing great stress
occurring before death. Professor Maria Sobaniec-Lotowska
explained, “Such changes can be observed only in living fibers,
and they show evidence of rapid spasms of the heart muscle in the
period just before death.” It was noted that the fact that the tissue was closely
bound to the bread of the Host made it impossible for someone to
have tampered with the sample. (Another miraculous occurrence has also happened in
Poland since
then.) No Exceptions Allowed Using the findings of these three Eucharistic miracles,
Tesoriero challenges evolutionary theory. “It holds that all life
forms on Earth today had to have been part of that evolutionary
process,” he said. “There cannot be one single exception;
otherwise, the theory falls.” Science and religion are not at odds with each other,
since the Catholic faith is dedicated to truth. The Church
established the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican in
1936 under Pope Pius XI to discover scientific realities and
promote progress. The study of evolution is part of that. While addressing
an audience of
the Pontifical Academy of Sciences on Oct. 29, 2014, Pope Francis
stated: “The Big Bang that is placed today at the origin of the
world does not contradict divine intervention, but exacts it. The
evolution in nature is not opposed to the notion of creation,
because evolution presupposes the creation of beings that evolve.” According to Tesoriero, by one of the examining
scientist’s own admission, the documented findings should send
ripples through the scientific community. In the Buenos Aires case, after forensic pathologist Dr.
Robert Lawrence of San Francisco learned the origin of the sample
he had examined, he told Tesoriero: “I think it would be wonderful
if this story was found to be true — fantastic. It would make us
scientists rethink all our concepts that we have developed
throughout our lives.” It was that specific comment, Tesoriero
said, that gave him the idea to write his book. After Lawrence read Tesoriero’s book, he sent him the
following email: “The book very nicely points out the inadequacy
of science and Darwin’s theory in explaining how or why man was
created. It makes a strong argument for divine creation, even
without the host-to-heart cases, which, when added to the
equation, make Darwinian evolution an inadequate explanation of
how the world and its inhabitants caus to be. I am not religious,
as you know, but find the book to be a convincing argument in
favor of a Creative Agency over stepwise evolution.” Tesoriero said that he hopes the documented scientific
facts surrounding Eucharistic miracles will open the eyes of many,
and not just scientists. “The fact that these transformations have occurred in a
Christian context cannot be avoided,” he said. “And neither can
the fact that they confirm the original and enduring doctrine of
the Real Presence of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist.”
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