Vatican Tightens Rules on Miracles and Money in Sainthood Cases

https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2016/09/23/vatican-tightens-rules-miracles-money-sainthood-cases/

New rules approved by Pope Francis and released by the Vatican on 09 September 2016 are designed to make the process for approving a miracle in a sainthood cause more stringent, and also to ensure there's a clear paper trail behind who's picking up the tab and how much is being spent.

New rules presented by the Vatican are designed to tighten the process for approving miracles as part of sainthood causes, and to also make sure there’s a clear paper trail behind who’s picking up the tab and how much they’re spending.

The text was approved by Italian Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, in the name of Pope Francis in August and released on Friday
.
Italian Archbishop Marcello Bartolucci, the number two official at the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints, presented the highlights of the new measures in a note released by the Vatican’s Press Office.

The new rules include:

• To approve a miracle, at least 5 out of the 7 members of the body of medical experts within the congregation must approve, or 4 out of 6, depending on the size of the group, as opposed to a simple majority.
• In case a miracle report is rejected on the first go-around, it may only be reexamined a total of three times.
• In order to reexamine a miracle claim, new members must be named to the consulting body.
• The president of the consulting body may only be confirmed to one additional five-year term after the original mandate expires.
• While in the past payments to experts could be made in person by cash or check, now the experts must be paid exclusively through a bank transfer.

In general, the going rate in sainthood causes is roughly $560 for each of the two medical personnel asked to perform a preliminary review, and about $4200 in total for the seven members of the medical consulting committee.

The new rules are not retroactive, and hence they do not invalidate any beatifications or canonizations performed under earlier procedures.

Bartolucci said work on the new rules began one year ago, around the same time that leaks of confidential Vatican financial documents raised questions about financial practices in the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

In his book “Merchants in the Temple,” Italian journalist Gianluigi Nuzzi charged the congregation was among the most reluctant Vatican offices to cooperate with new transparency measures imposed as part of Francis’s project of Vatican reform, and asserted that the average cost of a sainthood cause was about $550,000.
U.S. Catholic officials traditionally have used $250,000 as a benchmark for the cost of a cause from the initial investigation on a diocesan level, to a canonization Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, though that cost can increase depending in part of how many people take part in the canonization ceremony and the logistics of organizing the event.

In March, Pope Francis had already approved a new set of financial procedures for the congregation, outlining procedures for handling contributions and specifying which authorities are charged with overseeing the flow of money.

Under those measures, while the postulator, or promoter, of a sainthood cause can continue to administer the funds for each cause, the bishop of the diocese or the superior general of the religious order that initiates the cause or another church authority must review financial statements and approve the budgets for each cause.

The rules approved in March also confirm a “Solidarity Fund” created by St. Pope John Paul II in 1983 to help cover the costs of causes where resources are lacking, giving the congregation discretion to transfer unused money from one case into the fund to cover the expenses of another.

Pondering Miracles, Medical and Religious

This article provides us with a glimpse into the Vatican's medical process of pondering miracles. The author is a historian of medicine and a hematologist at Queen's University in Canada and author of "Medical Miracles" and "Medical Saints."

By JACALYN DUFFIN 

SEPT. 5, 2016

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/06/opinion/pondering-miracles-medical-and-religious.html?_r=0

Kingston, Ontario — THERE was no mistaking the diagnostic significance of that little red stick inside a deep blue cell: The Auer rod meant the mystery patient had acute myelogenous leukemia. As slide after slide went by, her bone marrow told a story: treatment, remission, relapse, treatment, remission, remission, remission.

I was reading these marrows in 1987, but the samples had been drawn in 1978 and 1979. Median survival of that lethal disease with treatment was about 18 months; however, given that she had already relapsed once, I knew that she had to be dead. Probably someone was being sued, and that was why my hematology colleagues had asked for a blind reading.

Imagining an aggressive cross-examination in court, I emphasized in my report that I knew neither the history nor why I was reading the marrows. After the work was submitted, I asked the treating physician what was going on. She smiled and said that my report had been sent to the Vatican. This leukemia case was being considered as the final miracle in the dossier of Marie-Marguerite d’Youville, the founder of the Order of Sisters of Charity of Montreal and a candidate to become the first Canadian-born saint.

As in the case of Mother Teresa, who was canonized Sunday by Pope Francis, miracles are still used as evidence that the candidate is in heaven and had interceded with God in response to a petition. Two miracles, usually cures that defy natural explanation, are generally required. For Mother Teresa, the Vatican concluded that prayers to her led to the disappearance of an Indian woman’s incurable tumor and the sudden recovery of a Brazilian man with a brain infection.

The “miracle” involving d’Youville had already been overturned once by the Vatican’s medical committee, unconvinced by the story of a first remission, a relapse, and a much longer second remission. The clerics argued that she had never relapsed and that her survival in first remission was rare but not impossibly so. But the panel and her advocates agreed that a “blind” reading of the evidence by another expert might provoke reconsideration. When my report confirmed what the Ottawa doctors found, that she had indeed had a short remission and then relapsed, the patient, who had prayed to d’Youville for help and, against all odds, was still alive, wanted me to testify.

The tribunal that questioned me was not juridical, but ecclesiastical. I was not asked about my faith. (For the record, I’m an atheist.) I was not asked if it was a miracle. I was asked if I could explain it scientifically. I could not, though I had come armed for my testimony with the most up-to-date hematological literature, which showed that long survivals following relapses were not seen.

When, at the end, the Vatican committee asked if I had anything more to say, I blurted out that as much as her survival, thus far, was remarkable, I fully expected her to relapse some day sooner or later. 

What would the Vatican do then, revoke the canonization? The clerics recorded my doubts. But the case went forward and d’Youville was canonized on Dec. 9, 1990.

That experience, as a hematologist, led me to a research project that I conducted in my other role, as a historian of medicine. I was curious: What were the other miracles used in past canonizations? How many were healings? How many involved up-to date treatments? How many were attended by skeptical physicians like me? How did all that change through time? And can we explain those outcomes now?

Over hundreds of hours in the Vatican archives, I examined the files of more than 1,400 miracle investigations — at least one from every canonization between 1588 and 1999. A vast majority — 93 percent over all and 96 percent for the 20th century — were stories of recovery from illness or injury, detailing treatment and testimony from baffled physicians.

If a sick person recovers through prayer and without medicine, that’s nice, but not a miracle. She had to be sick or dying despite receiving the best of care. The church finds no incompatibility between scientific medicine and religious faith; for believers, medicine is just one more manifestation of God’s work on earth.

Perversely then, this ancient religious process, intended to celebrate exemplary lives, is hostage to the relativistic wisdom and temporal opinions of modern science. Physicians, as nonpartisan witnesses and unaligned third parties, are necessary to corroborate the claims of hopeful postulants. For that reason alone, illness stories top miracle claims. I never expected such reverse skepticism and emphasis on science within the church.

I also learned more about medicine and its parallels with religion. Both are elaborate, evolving systems of belief. Medicine is rooted in natural explanations and causes, even in the absence of definitive evidence. Religion is defined by the supernatural and the possibility of transcendence. Both address our plight as mortals who suffer — one to postpone death and relieve symptoms, the other to console us and reconcile us to pain and loss.

Respect for our religious patients demands understanding and tolerance; their beliefs are as true for them as the “facts” may be for physicians. Now almost 40 years later, that mystery woman is still alive and I still cannot explain why. Along with the Vatican, she calls it a miracle. Why should my inability to offer an explanation trump her belief? However they are interpreted, miracles exist, because that is how they are lived in our world.

 

2016 PTAA and Matt Talbot Pilgrimage to Knock Homily

Bishop Denis Nulty gave the homily at the Annual PTAA and Matt Talbot Pilgrimage to Knock 17th July 2016, which can be read in its entirety at http://www.kandle.ie/bishop-nultys-homily-the-annual-and-matt-talbot-pilgrimmage-to-knock-17th-july-2016/. Only a portion of this homily is posted here. 


“…Today on pilgrimage I’m going to offer you a pairing that I think gives substance and life to our two pilgrimages, traveling as one today. I speak of Fr. James Cullen and Venerable Matt Talbot. Both men I have a deep affection for – the former in more recent years, since my appointment to Kildare & Leighlin Diocese, living now in Carlow and the latter, for close to twenty-eight years when I organized the very first Matt Talbot Mission in Mullingar.

James Cullen was born in New Ross in 1841. A comfortable background, allowing the family to send young James off to boarding school at Clongowes Wood College. That was in 1856, the year when Fr. Theobald Matthew of the great Temperance Crusade died. The Father Matthew Medal is still a very much revered possession amongst Pioneers. Returning to James Cullen, he was determined not to become a Jesuit, so he signed on for his native Ferns Diocese and studied for the priesthood in Carlow College.

The story goes that two years before his ordination, while home on holidays he had a chance encounter with a priest who certainly wasn’t a teetotaler, an encounter which set his mind firmly in the direction of temperance and in the founding of the PTAA. He was ordained in the Cathedral in Carlow. His early years of parish work brought him up front with the harsh reality of poverty and homelessness and identifying alcohol as the root cause then of both. His yearning towards the Jesuits never left him and he succumbed in 1881. The rest is history.

The second part of the pairing on this double pilgrimage day is Venerable Matt Talbot. I’m not sure what sparked my initial interest in this man to begin organizing missions around promoting his cause in Mullingar. It might stem from the account of his death, found bundled in a heap on Granby Lane – June 7^th 1925. On that same date, thirty-eight years later I was born. The newspaper account of Matt’s death talked of the body being taken to Jervis Street hospital. Staff at the hospital would later discover three chains on his body – a heavier one around his waist; a lighter one around his arm and another below his knee. Matt, apparently was on his way to his third Mass that day and it was still early morning. An eight year-old attended that Mass accompanying a hard of hearing aunt, who liked to get up front, in case she missed what the priest was saying, remembered well the announcement at the end of Mass: ‘A poor old man has been found dead on Granby Lane, we’ll pray for him’. That eight year-old later became a priest Fr. Dominic Crilly. I spoke with him shortly before he died – he always believed too much was made of Matt’s excessive drinking; for forty years of his life he was a fervent Pioneer.

Some people, who know my interest in Venerable Matt Talbot wonder why he hasn’t been raised to the realm of the beatified or better still canonized. The miracle of a saint must be unexplainable; the miracle of overcoming addiction, like Matt Talbot once did, is even harder to prove or classify. You can be cured of a tumor; you can be cured of cancer but an addiction can linger.

And that’s why for me the Saints are those who attend AA meetings up and down the country and overcome addiction through the step programme of prayer and mutual support. They will never be canonized on this earth; but like Venerable Matt Talbot, their behavior will be richly rewarded in eternity..."

Miracles for Canonization and the Example of Venerable Matt Talbot*

Why Miracles Should Remain a Requirement for Canonization  

COMMENTARY: Canonization and beatification aren't equivalent to induction into a hall of fame. The Church cannot risk raising up someone for veneration without definitive proof.

by Brian O’Neel

June 7, 2016
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/why-miracles-should-remain-a-requirement-for-canonization


Recently, I got into a vigorous debate with a good friend who is also a good Catholic.

He longs for the eventual canonization of the Irish alcoholic Venerable Matt Talbot (d. 1925). He says the Holy Father should just go ahead and declare him a saint, although Talbot’s intercession hasn’t produced a miracle.

His argument is that, in the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis should show mercy to the ever-growing legion of those addicted by drugs or alcohol by canonizing the former drunk from Dublin. Doing this, he argues, would show addicts the Church understands that their affliction isn’t a weakness, but a true sickness, and she offers them both the temporal and spiritual compassion they need to beat their disease.

As a semi-professional hagiographer who has studied Talbot’s life, I agree he certainly deserves the title of “Venerable,” meaning he led “a life of heroic virtue.” That doesn’t ipso facto make him a saint, however.

I wanted to make the same argument to a nun with whom I recently spoke. Her order’s foundress is up for beatification. When I asked this sister why this “Servant of God” deserves our consideration as an example for us to emulate, she replied in an incredulous, almost-offended voice: “Why, she founded an order.”

No doubt, this spiritual mother was a very good and holy woman. Her body was even found incorrupt. But that doesn’t necessarily make her a saint.

To know whether someone is in heaven, we need a miracle. All any of us — you, I, the consultors for the Vatican’s saint-making office (the Congregation for the Causes of Saints) —  can see is the surface of a person. We don’t know what lies inside the hidden corners of a soul. Only God does.

To wit, one book on hell tells the story of a male religious who everyone agreed lived a remarkably holy life. Thus, when he died, his brothers naturally assumed he went to heaven. So imagine their surprise when his apparition appeared a short time later, telling them he was in everlasting fire. The reason? He died with an unconfessed mortal sin.

The story may be a myth. More believable is the Catechism of the Catholic Church. Paragraph 1033 says: “To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice.”

How many of us have committed a mortal sin and hesitated to confess it out of fear or shame?

But even if a Servant of God or Venerable died in a state of grace, is it not at all likely they are in purgatory and not before the Beatific Vision? The Fatima visionary Francisco Marto — Blessed Francisco, mind you — was counseled he would need to say many Rosaries to avoid purgatory. Our Lady told the children a deceased girl they knew would “be in purgatory until the end of the world.”

One might reasonably ask what anyone so young could have done to merit such a long time in purgatory. But if we know our Catholic faith, then we understand we spend time in purgatory not as a punishment, per se, but to cleanse the temporal effects of sin from our souls.

With someone such as Matt Talbot, is it not conceivable that he is in purgatory? After all, he started excessively drinking at age 12. He didn’t quit drinking until age 28. Let’s be conservative and say he was drunk every day for 15 years. (We know he usually was inebriated, because the day he gave up drinking his mother was surprised to see him sober.) That is 5,475 days of drunkenness. At least once, he stole to get money for drinking. Who knows what other damaging acts to the soul he committed. That is a huge number of mortal sins. (Note: As St. Thomas points out in the Summa, Q. 150, intoxication isn’t always a capital sin.) Yes, our God is perfectly merciful — but he is also perfectly just.

And for reasons we’ll discuss, we need a definitive sign from God before we go declaring his justice satisfied.

It wasn’t always so. For several hundred years, local bishops or communities were allowed to proclaim someone a saint or blessed. This led to “Blessed Charlemagne,” who had eight to 10 known wives and concubines, and of his 20 children, nine were illegitimate. He also had 4,500 Saxons massacred in a single day and said any survivors who refused to receive baptism would likewise die. The Swedes once revered as a saint a man who was killed while drunk.

This is why the Holy See began reserving the canonization process to itself, permanently doing so in 1170 under Alexander III. Since then, popes such as Sixtus V, Urban VIII, Benedict XIV and St. John Paul II have revised the saint-making procedure. But always, miracles have been required.

So why require a miracle as part of the process? As professor Heidi Schlumpf wrote on the process: “Miracles confirm ‘the Church’s judgment regarding the virtue or martyrdom of the Servant of God.’”

God can make this confirmation at any moment. Considering the average length of a beatification (118 years from death to ceremony) and canonization process (an average 49 additional years), Mother Teresa of Calcutta and John Paul II were approved for sainthood amazingly quick.

If God wanted to demonstrate that Talbot or, say, Jesuit Father Walter Ciszek, a Servant of God, was in heaven at this moment, what would stop him from doing so?

Ultimately, the desire to scrap the miracle “litmus test” is an impatience to see our “saint” raised to the altars. There may be purely altruistic reasons behind this, but the spirit is still the same. But if we get rid of the miracle requirement, then why have a process at all?

Why, indeed. Canonization and beatification aren’t equivalent to induction into a hall of fame. As Jesuit Father J.R. MacMahon wrote: “When the Pope utters the solemn words defining the new saint, he is relying, not merely on human industry or prudence or wisdom, but on the special assistance of the Holy Ghost, and [pay attention here] his definition is infallible.”

Therefore, the Church cannot risk raising up someone for such veneration without definitive proof. The faithful aren’t even supposed to directly pray to a Servant of God or Venerable for their intercession. Instead, we’re supposed to ask God for those prayers. To see that, all one has to do is look at the back of a prayer card for any person who hasn’t yet received beatification. Then compare it to one from a person who has been beatified or canonized. Notice the difference?

Let us be patient. Let us wait on God to do the work that will show forth his glory as he wills it, and not as we do. And let us pray for the souls of those we consider saints but who may actually be in purgatory.

*NOTE:  We created a different title for posting purposes.

Since this article's content is likely to elicited varied reactions, we recommend reading the comment section at its publication link. The content may also stimulate additional articles as well as content for inclusion in presentations and homilies.

 

Remembering Venerable Matt Talbot Today on Trinity Sunday

It was on Trinity Sunday, 7 June 1925, that Matt Talbot collapsed and died of heart failure while walking in Granby Lane to a Mass in St.Savior's Church on Dominic Street, Dublin.
 
In his article posted earlier today at http://scottdodge.blogspot.com/2016/05/remembering-venerable-matt-talbot-on.html,

Deacon Scott reminds us to join him “in praying that Papa Begoglio, who will visit Ireland in 2018, in his paternal tenderness, will make Matt Blessed. His intercession works miracles all the time."

A Note on Moral Miracles

John Thavis, one of the world’s leading Vaticanologists, has recently published a most perceptive and highly readable book, The Vatican Prophecies: Investigating Supernatural Signs, Apparitions, and Miracles in the Modern Age (2015). 

 

In Chapter 7, '’The Miracle Trail,’' Travis discusses the Vatican’s current view on moral miracles as being too ambiguous and ephemeral as illustrated in the cause of Matt Talbot, which can be read a https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Vatican_Prophecies.html?id=QsdJBgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=kp_read_button&hl=en#v=onepage&q=matt%20talbot&f=false. The paragraph concludes: “Moreover, most recovering alcoholics or addicts have been through some form of treatment. Discerning precisely what prompted an alcoholic to abandon the bottle was simply beyond the competence of the Vatican’s experts.”

 

A physical miracle involving Matt Talbot, however, would keep his cause perhaps more active and likely,  e.g., http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/search?q=physical+miracle

More media coverage on Matt Talbot's road to sainthood

This is the latest article about a possible physical miracle attributed to the intersession of Matt Talbot. Previous articles can be found at

 http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-physical-miracle-involving-venerable_10.html and

http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2014/11/matt-talbots-road-to-sainthood.html.

New 'miracle' may put Matt Talbot on road to sainthood
by Mags Gargan 

January 1, 2015 
http://irishcatholic.ie/article/new-miracle-may-put-matt-talbot-road-sainthood

The Church is investigating a potential miracle that could see Matt Talbot on the road to sainthood. The Dubliner, who died in 1925, was renowned for his holiness and having overcome a crippling alcohol addiction, has been a heroic inspiration to many people in Ireland and abroad battling addiction.

The report of a possible miracle in the United States, if verified by the Vatican, would mean that Matt Talbot would be declared ‘Blessed’ by Pope Francis, a major step on the road to sainthood.

“There is a lot of positivity around the whole story and please God it will happen,” Fr Brian Lawless, the man charged with leading the cause for canonisation, told The Irish Catholic.

Fr Lawless has travelled to the United States in his role as vice-postulator of the cause of Matt Talbot to interview Patrick and Shannon Watkins who attribute the safe delivery of their sixth child, Talbot Joseph, to the intercession of Matt Talbot.

His parents didn’t have a devotion to Matt Talbot, but all their children have Irish names and when they drove past the Matt Talbot Kitchen and Outreach on a trip to Nebraska the name appealed to them.

When Sharon was a couple of days overdue in her pregnancy tests indicated what medics described as “chromosomal abnormalities”, loops in the bowels and doctors suspected Down syndrome or cystic fibrosis.

Sharon’s sister immediately mobilised a prayer chain and since the child would be named Talbot she asked everyone to pray for Matt Talbot’s intercession.

Three days later, baby Talbot was born with no bowel loops, no Down syndrome or any evidence of health problems. Doctors described the outcome as “medically inexplicable”.

Now, the Church will appoint a panel of medical experts to review the case and if the inquiry finds that the cure was, in fact, medically inexplicable, the case will be forwarded to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

Inquiries

“We have a good feeling about it,” said Fr Lawless. “Hopefully, in the near future, we will have word about the outcome of these inquiries.

“Matt Talbot is very highly regarded, particularly in the US. With all the difficulties and problems people are facing as result of addictions, now is the time that people need a patron and Matt is the obvious choice,” Fr Lawless said.

Fr Richard Ebejer, parish priest of Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Dublin’s north inner-city, which hosts the mortal remains of Matt Talbot, said it would be wonderful for his cause to move forward this year during his 90th anniversary.

The parish is holding a number of events to celebrate his legacy, including the opening of an exhibition this month at the entrance of the church illustrating his life.

“When someone reaches bottom he offers hope,” Fr Ebejer told The Irish Catholic.

“We want to present Matt Talbot as a role model to young people. Many think of him as an old man but his conversion was at 28. He can speak to today’s young people,” Fr Ebejer said.

Matt Talbot was born in a socially deprived area of Dublin in 1856 and, like many people at the time, he turned to alcohol at an early age.

He was considered a “hopeless alcoholic” by the age of 13. However, at the age of 28 he renounced alcohol and found strength in prayer. He soon became renowned for his piety, works of charity and mortification of the flesh.

In 1931, the Archdiocese of Dublin began investigating whether or not Matt Talbot should be considered for sainthood. His case was forwarded to the Vatican in 1947 and in 1972 his remains were removed from Glasnevin Cemetery and brought to the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes on Sean McDermott Street.

Three years later, Pope Paul VI recognised his ‘heroic virtue’ and declared him ‘Venerable’ an important step in the process to becoming a saint.

Matt Talbot's Road to Sainthood

As an author, speaker, and founder of Matt Talbot Kitchen & Outreach in Lincoln, Nebraska, Mary Costello has introduced people to Venerable Matt Talbot for decades. She will be speaking on the following topic November 20, 2014 at 7 pm at MTKO.

 

by Mary Costello

November 2014

http://www.mtkserves.org/events/matt-talbots-road-to-sainthood.html/title/mary-costello-s-article-about-matt-talbot

 

"Some of you who receive the Catholic paper, The Southern Nebraska Register might have already read about the miracle performed by God through the intercession of Matt Talbot. But the wonderful news to those of us here in Lincoln is that the family involved in the miracle heard about the man they prayed to because of the Kitchen and Outreach center here in Lincoln, Nebraska!

Many of us who are concerned with alcoholism and addictions have been praying, working and hoping for a verifiable, physical miracle to be performed through the intercession of Matt Talbot for 75 years. But while Matt continues to help thousands of men and women, wives and husbands, sons and daughters, moms and dads, grandmas and grandpas return to lives of sobriety and serenity, these are considered psychological miracles and cannot be considered by the Congregation of Rites, the folks who decide these things in Rome. They need physical miracles to move a candidate from the status of “Venerable” where Matt stands today, to “Blessed” and then, Praise God one day, to the level of “Saint.”

Yes, there has been a miracle in the suburb of Overland Park, Kans. A young couple, Shannon and Patrick Watkins, traveled to Lincoln for the baptism of a relative’s baby and heard about our work and decided to name their baby Talbot. I’ll explain more about the miracle when I come to see you all in November.

I know many people, even people associated with MTKO really don’t know much about the man, Matt Talbot. No, he wasn’t a relative of mine, nor a friend! Let me tell you a little about this marvelous man and, hopefully, soon-to-be-saint: he was born into a very poor, alcoholic family in Dublin, Ireland in 1856. He had very little education and admits himself he was probably an alcoholic by his early teens. He went to work when he was only 12, which was the custom and because of another interesting Irish custom (the biggest employer being one of the world’s largest brewers) the paychecks were not sent home with the workers but were deposited with the local pub owners. Sounds incredible, but true. (It was the Catholic Church that finally led efforts to change this custom, but not until the 1920’s!)

Therefore, every worker had to pass through the neighborhood watering hole before he arrived home on payday. We can only surmise how many ever made it home with a few shillings still jangling in his pockets. This was at a time when Ireland was still recovering from the Great Famine of the late 1840’s and 1850’s; thousands of people were unemployed, starving farmers were streaming in from the west and soldiers were coming home from the Crimean War. Dublin was a sea of destitution and poverty.

Matt Talbot and his brothers were some of the unfortunates who usually happily received their paychecks on Saturday noon and had drained it by Tuesday night. The rest of the week they drank “on the cuff” or on the charity of their friends. But one week when Matt was 28, he had been sick all week. He didn’t draw a paycheck at all. One Saturday noon he stood outside his favorite pub waiting for one of his pals to invite him in for a nip or two. No one did. Matt walked a few steps to the bridge overlooking the Royal Canal. He had never been a particularly spiritual person. His religious education had taken him only to his First Communion and Confirmation and while he attended Mass most Sundays he did not receive the Sacraments. There was in Ireland at the time a practice called “Taking the Pledge” designed by a Catholic priest, Fr. Mathew, to stem the tide of the horrendous problem of alcoholism in Ireland in the mid-Nineteenth Century.

We don’t know what God whispered to Matt that afternoon in 1874, but it must have been something wonderful. Matt walked home and said to this mother, “I’m going to take the Pledge,” and she said, “Don’ take it unless you’re going to keep it.” He said, “I am going to keep it.”

But the way that he kept it was the great thing, the thing that turned him into a saint. From home that first day, Matt walked to Conliffe College, a seminary in Dublin, where he went to Confession and took the Pledge. The next morning, he went to Mass and Communion for the first time in many years. During the week, he got up early and went to daily Mass, praying that the Lord would help him stay sober. After work, instead of going to the bar, he visited the Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. He asked the priests at the College to teach him to read (he could barely read and write his name) so he could read the lives of the saints and he ended up reading and understanding deep theology.

Matt Talbot especially loved Our Lady under the title of Our Lady of Wisdom and he slept with a statue of her in his arms. For the next 40+ years, he ate only enough to keep himself alive and gave away most of his earnings (the Columban Fathers were one of his favorite charities); he lived simply, sleeping on planks for only a few hours a night and spending many hours a day in prayer or spiritual reading. He died on his way to his third Mass of the day on Trinity Sunday, June 7, 1925. After years of study, he was declared “Venerable” by Pope Paul VI in 1975 indicating that this man had lived a life of heroic virtue.

Since his death, Matt has performed many, many miracles, well, of course God performs the miracles but we pray to Matt and he intercedes at God’s throne for us. But this is the first physical, verifiable miracle that has been performed through Matt’s intercession. When I come to talk to the group, I will tell you more about Matt, and more about the miracle.
If you would like more information about Matt Talbot, please contact me at marykcostello@yahoo.com or at 3901 S, 27th St, unit 4, Lincoln Ne. 68502. I have prayer cards and medals available."

Note: Further information about the miracle referred to in this article is available at http://venerablematttalbotresourcecenter.blogspot.com/2014/10/a-physical-miracle-involving-venerable_10.html

A physical miracle involving Venerable Matt Talbot?

Thousands of moral miracles have been reported by recovering alcoholics through the intersession of Venerable Matt Talbot. But for beatification, a Vatican confirmed physical miracle is required, which has not occurred yet.

But one is possibly on the horizon...one that does not involve an addiction nor an adult laborer.

One-year-old Talbot Joseph Watkins wasn’t supposed to be a healthy little boy. In fact, all medical evidence prior to his birth pointed to something seriously wrong. But a possible miracle changed the boy’s fate, which may lead to Matt’s beatification.

This extraordinary story, “The Making of a Miracle,” by Joe Bollig and published in The Leaven (Catholic Newspaper) on September 26, 2014, can be read at

http://www.theleaven.com/v36/v36n7talbot.html.

An expanded article on page 5 at  http://www.theleaven.com/past_issues/_pdf/v36/Leaven%2009-26-14.pdf includes a brief biography of Matt Talbot, prayer for his canonization, and an interview with Fr. Brian Lawless, the Vice-Postulator, who visited with the Overland Park, Kansas family in August 2014.

A Call for Canonisation of Venerable Matt Talbot

Cathal Barry

May 8, 2014

 

Cathal Barry, a columnist for The Irish Catholic, published the following article titled , “Lobby Pope for Matt Talbot Sainthood--Call,” at http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/lobby-pope-matt-talbot-sainthood-%E2%80%93-callon  on May 8, 2014.  It is based on an interview with Fr. Brian Lawless, Vice Postulator for the Cause of Canonisation of Matt Talbot, who urges Irish Church leaders to lobby Pope Francis for this canonisation. 

 

Although not explicitly stated in this article,  “Friends of Venerable Matt Talbot” worldwide are also invited to urge their church leaders to do the same.

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Irish Church leaders are being urged to lobby Pope Francis for the canonisation of the saintly Dubliner Matt Talbot.
The Dublin-based priest responsible for Matt Talbot’s cause for sainthood made an impassioned appeal to the hierarchy ahead of the 89th anniversary of the well-known Dubliner’s death next month.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fr Brain Lawless, Vice Postulator for the Cause of Canonisation of Venerable Matt Talbot insisted the bishops “should be pushing for Matt Talbot to be canonised”.
“Matt was a poor working man from Dublin. He wasn’t a member of a religious order and he doesn’t have the big machinery behind him that the Franciscans or the Jesuits have to get their saints through. That’s why his cause is so important and needs support,” he pleaded.
“Part of his charm and endearment is that Matt is just like one of us. But that also goes against him to a certain extent. That’s why I’m batting for Matt. He’s one of the little guys,” he said.
The Informative Process for the Beatification of Matt Talbot (illustrated) was opened in 1931 by the then Archbishop of Dublin, Edward J Byrne. The Church subsequently recognised Talbot as ‘Servant of God’ and on October 3, 1975, he was declared ‘Venerable’ by Pope Paul VI.
Fr Lawless, who is responsible for eliciting a miracle that could lead to the beatification and eventual canonisation of Matt Talbot, claims a “physical miracle” is needed now for his cause to progress to the next stage.
“We need a miracle now that is not explainable by science, which is more or less instantaneous, and one that would verify that Matt enjoys the same devotion and regard in Heaven as he does here on Earth.”
“There is still every chance that Matt Talbot could be made a saint in our life time. It’s just a matter of building up interest and momentum,” he said.
- See more at: http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/lobby-pope-matt-talbot-sainthood-%E2%80%93-call#sthash.efTQIcI9.dpuf

gleplus0  New

Irish Church leaders are being urged to lobby Pope Francis for the canonisation of the saintly Dubliner Matt Talbot.
The Dublin-based priest responsible for Matt Talbot’s cause for sainthood made an impassioned appeal to the hierarchy ahead of the 89th anniversary of the well-known Dubliner’s death next month.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fr Brain Lawless, Vice Postulator for the Cause of Canonisation of Venerable Matt Talbot insisted the bishops “should be pushing for Matt Talbot to be canonised”.
“Matt was a poor working man from Dublin. He wasn’t a member of a religious order and he doesn’t have the big machinery behind him that the Franciscans or the Jesuits have to get their saints through. That’s why his cause is so important and needs support,” he pleaded.
“Part of his charm and endearment is that Matt is just like one of us. But that also goes against him to a certain extent. That’s why I’m batting for Matt. He’s one of the little guys,” he said.
The Informative Process for the Beatification of Matt Talbot (illustrated) was opened in 1931 by the then Archbishop of Dublin, Edward J Byrne. The Church subsequently recognised Talbot as ‘Servant of God’ and on October 3, 1975, he was declared ‘Venerable’ by Pope Paul VI.
Fr Lawless, who is responsible for eliciting a miracle that could lead to the beatification and eventual canonisation of Matt Talbot, claims a “physical miracle” is needed now for his cause to progress to the next stage.
“We need a miracle now that is not explainable by science, which is more or less instantaneous, and one that would verify that Matt enjoys the same devotion and regard in Heaven as he does here on Earth.”
“There is still every chance that Matt Talbot could be made a saint in our life time. It’s just a matter of building up interest and momentum,” he said.
- See more at: http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/lobby-pope-matt-talbot-sainthood-%E2%80%93-call#sthash.efTQIcI9.dpuf

Lobby Pope for Matt Talbot sainthood

“Irish Church leaders are being urged to lobby Pope Francis for the canonisation of the saintly Dubliner Matt Talbot.

The Dublin-based priest responsible for Matt Talbot’s cause for sainthood made an impassioned appeal to the hierarchy ahead of the 89th anniversary of the well-known Dubliner’s death next month.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fr Brain Lawless, Vice Postulator for the Cause of Canonisation of Venerable Matt Talbot insisted the bishops “should be pushing for Matt Talbot to be canonised”.

“Matt was a poor working man from Dublin. He wasn’t a member of a religious order and he doesn’t have the big machinery behind him that the Franciscans or the Jesuits have to get their saints through. That’s why his cause is so important and needs support,” he pleaded.

“Part of his charm and endearment is that Matt is just like one of us. But that also goes against him to a certain extent. That’s why I’m batting for Matt. He’s one of the little guys,” he said.

The Informative Process for the Beatification of Matt Talbot (illustrated) was opened in 1931 by the then Archbishop of Dublin, Edward J Byrne. The Church subsequently recognised Talbot as ‘Servant of God’ and on October 3, 1975, he was declared ‘Venerable’ by Pope Paul VI.

Fr Lawless, who is responsible for eliciting a miracle that could lead to the beatification and eventual canonisation of Matt Talbot, claims a “physical miracle” is needed now for his cause to progress to the next stage.

“We need a miracle now that is not explainable by science, which is more or less instantaneous, and one that would verify that Matt enjoys the same devotion and regard in Heaven as he does here on Earth.”

“There is still every chance that Matt Talbot could be made a saint in our life time. It’s just a matter of building up interest and momentum,” he said.”

Note:  The same day Mr. Barry also published a very informative and timely article titled, “Matt Talbot - Urban ascetic,” at http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/lobby-pope-matt-talbot-sainthood-%E2%80%93-call. The section subtitled “The ultimate layman” contains information that relates to the content of the above article.

Venerable Matt Talbot's life, influence, and road to sainthood

In this very informative and timely article, Cathal Barry presents the life, influence, and road to sainthood of Venerable Matt Talbot. 

Following his introduction, reproduced below, Mr. Cathal divides his article into three sections:  “Matt story,” a biographical sketch of his life, “The ultimate layman,” based on an interview with Fr. Brian Lawless, Vice Postulator of the Cause for the Canonisation of Matt Talbot, and “Matt Talbot changed my life,” an interview with addiction counsellor, Michael Murphy.

Matt Talbot - Urban ascetic

by Cathal Barry, Columnist

The Irish Catholic

May 8, 2014

Source: http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/matt-talbot-urban-ascetic

“We live in an age of addictions more sophisticated than ever before. Addictions to substances such as alcohol and other drugs soft and hard, prescription and illegal, addictions to gambling, the internet, work, money and power. All these have the ability to destroy our lives and often end up eating away at our very souls as well.

Matt Talbot gradually came to this awareness and from the time of his conversion as a young man of 28, he spent the rest of his life living to a heroic extent the Christian virtues through prayer, spiritual reading, work and acts of charity.

His life is a witness to the fact that people can, by God's grace and their own self acceptance, say no to that which leads to addiction or addictive behaviours...”

Note: A companion article by the author can be read at http://www.irishcatholic.ie/article/lobby-pope-matt-talbot-sainthood-%E2%80%93-call

Remembering the Birth of Venerable Matt Talbot Today

One hundred and fifty eight years ago at 13 Aldborough Court, Dublin, Ireland, Elizabeth Talbot gave birth to her second of twelve children, who she and her husband, Charles, named Matthew.

Only God knew that we would remember this birth and his life today as Venerable Matt Talbot, patron “saint” of alcoholics and those seeking sobriety.

Matt is not yet an official Roman Catholic canonized saint since he lacks two known physical miracles credited to his intercession. While there are alcoholics (and other addicts) worldwide who consider their sobriety through Matt’s intercession a miracle, these are currently viewed by the Church as "moral miracles."
(For a discussion on types of miracles see http://www.amazon.com/Making-Saints-Catholic-Determines-Becomes/dp/0684815303 pages 212-213 and http://www.amazon.com/The-Miracle-Detective-Investigative-Investigates-ebook/dp/B008RZKOFQ, page 31.)

Prayer for the Canonisation of Matt Talbot

 

Lord, in your servant, Matt Talbot you
have given us a wonderful example of
triumph over addiction, of devotion to
duty, and of lifelong reverence for the
Holy Sacrament. May his life of
prayer and penance give us courage
to take up our crosses and follow in the
footsteps of Our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ.

Father, if it be your will that your
beloved servant should be glorified by
your Church, make known by your
heavenly favours the power he enjoys in
your sight. We ask this through the
same Jesus Christ Our Lord. Amen.

The inspiration of two lives

Knock 2012 – Homily

Notes for a sermon preached by Fr Bernard J. McGuckian S.J. at Knock Shrine on the occasion of the joint Pioneer/Matt Talbot Pilgrimage on Sunday, July 15th, at http://www.pioneerassociation.ie/index.php/media-centre/370-knock2012homily

After God and the Blessed Virgin Mary the inspiration for our pilgrimage today comes from two men, one a priest, the other a layman. Both of them died in the early days of the new Irish State; Fr. James Aloysius Cullen and the Venerable Matt Talbot. Fr Cullen, the Founder of the Pioneer Association, died in Dublin on December 6th, 1921, just as the newspapers were reporting the fateful signing of the Anglo-Irish Treaty in London some hours earlier. Venerable Matt Talbot also died in Dublin, some four years later in Granby Lane, on Trinity Sunday, June 6th, 1925 just as the Angelus Bell was ringing out in the nearby Dominican Church where he was planning to attend the mid-day Mass.


The early lives of these two men could not have been more different. James Cullen was a pious, studious, country boy from childhood in Co Wexford. He was such a good student that he had completed his studies with distinction while still too young for priestly Ordination and required a dispensation. Matt Talbot’s early life was spent in the squalor of Dublin’s inner city where he had so little schooling that his name hardly made it to the roll book. The most that was said of him in the records was that he was a “mitcher”. As the whole world now knows, he was barely into his teens when he had developed a deplorable habit of excessive drinking.



Fr Cullen was well known throughout Ireland for his priestly zeal for over half a century before he died. Matt’s situation was different. His name was virtually unknown outside his family and beyond the circle of his workmates. It only came into prominence on the day he died. A notice in the Irish Independent on the day after his death read. “Unknown man dies in the street”. It was because each of these men took the Gospel of Christ so seriously that we still remember them.



Like the Apostles we heard about in the Gospel, Fr Cullen, from the day of his ordination in 1864 “set out to preach repentance, cast out devils and anoint many sick people with oil and cure them”. Matt did not set out to preach repentance or cast out devils. He had enough to do to change his own life and drive the demons from his own heart. But in the providence of God this is what he has been doing from his place in heaven since the day he died. The example of his conversion from excessive drinking has inspired a change of heart in thousands of others all over the world. Jesus once said that “some demons can only be cast out by prayer and fasting”. From what we can gather few people have spent so much of their lives in such fervent prayer and rigorous fasting as Matt Talbot. After a careful examination of the known facts of his life competent Church authorities concluded that this working man from the inner city of Dublin lived out the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity and the essential human virtues of prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance to a heroic degree. This is why he is called Venerable.



When we talk about the wasted early years of Matt’s life we should remember that there were positive aspects to it that should not be overlooked. He always attended Mass on Sundays. He was devoted to the Blessed Virgin. No matter how inebriated he was he said his prayers at night. His sisters noticed that he never indulged in salacious talk and never said anything disrespectful about women. There is no evidence of failures in chastity in his life. This is important in any discussion of the cardinal virtue of temperance. Temperance is the virtue that helps us deal wisely, not just with intoxicating drink, but with all the pleasurable areas of life. We need fortitude or courage to deal effectively with life’s inevitable painful areas.



While some might find it strange that we need a virtue to help us deal wisely with the pleasurable areas of life we should remember that many people have more difficulty dealing wisely with pleasure than with pain. I have rarely heard of a family that broke up because a member was suffering from a painful illness. In fact, if anything, the very illness can help a family to come together in support of the suffering member. It is different if a family member is not sufficiently temperate to resist the pleasurable attraction of an illicit relationship. Deficiencies like this can have devastating consequences.



In the Christian tradition there are four main parts of temperance; modesty and becoming behaviour in our dealings with others; abstinence and restraint in the use of food; thirdly, sobriety and care in the use of drink but most important of all and often overlooked as a dimension of temperance, chastity in the area of sexuality. Modest behaviour, abstinence and sobriety have an importance role to play in protecting chastity. It is a mistake to think that “sins of intemperance “are simply those committed while under the influence of drink. Serious sins against the virtue of temperance can be committed when cold sober. Infidelity can have more drastic consequences than excessive drinking.



Matt Talbot provides us with an example of the fullness of temperance. After his dramatic conversion Matt handed his whole life over to God and allowed himself to be guided by the Holy Spirit and wise spiritual directors. For the rest of his life he was modest in his demands from others and in his overall live style (he gave whatever money he saved away). He ate very little, abstained totally from drink and opted for a celibate life. He dealt very respectfully with a young woman who suggested that they might get married. He told her that he would discuss the matter with Our Lady and then give her his answer. In this way he learned that marriage was not his calling. Mary Purcell, Matt’s biographer, noted that it was to this girl’s credit that she recognised the best man in Ireland when she saw him do his work as a builder’s labourer.



Because of the situation in Ireland at the turn of the 20th century the aspect of temperance that most needed urgent attention was insobriety. Dealing with this is still the primary concern of the Pioneer Association. In founding the Association, Fr Cullen was launching a campaign of “prayer and fasting” on behalf of those who were suffering the effects of addiction to alcohol. Matt Talbot joined Fr Cullen’s movement in 1890 when it was known as the Temperance League of the Sacred Heart. Some years later, Fr. Cullen who was always trying to improve his methods of working, gave the movement the title “Pioneer” which it has now enjoyed for the last 114 years and which is set to continue long into the future. At the Eucharistic Congress last month in Dublin the positive reaction of the many visitors from all over the world to both the Pioneer and the Matt Talbot Stands in the Royal Dublin Society was a source of great encouragement to all involved in this work.



In the Pioneer Association we can be justly proud that the sanctity of the life of more than one of our members has been recognised by the highest authority in the Church. Matt Talbot and Edel Quinn are both Venerable. Fr John Sullivan and Frank Duff are Servants of God. We pray that one day all four will be raised to the honours of the altar. The miracle which will bring this about in the case of each of them will be the occasion not the cause of their beatification. The real cause will be the indubitable holiness of their lives and the continuous prayers of those of us who are convinced of their holiness. In the case of Matt Talbot, the on-going miracle of so many transformed lives will sooner or later lead to his beatification. The beatification will come when the medical profession agrees that something spectacular and outside their experience has taken place. However, in my estimation, this will be something minor compared with the miracles that Matt continues to work and has been quietly working for years.


I leave you with one down to earth reflection found among his notes after his death. “When in company, watch your words; when in the family, watch your temper; when alone, watch your thoughts.”



Note: Fr. Fr Bernard J. McGuckian serves as Central Spiritual Director of the Pioneer Association and as a member of the DUBLIN DIOCESAN MATT TALBOT COMMITTEE.
Some of his articles about Matt Talbot are posted on our site. The homily title, The inspiration of two lives, is ours for posting purposes.

Miracles do happen

by Triona Doherty

Reality, April 2011

Source: http://79.140.136.93/_fileupload/Apr11Rp9.pdf

In this informative article Doherty discusses what constitutes a miracle, why they are required for canonization, the making of saints, miraculous happenings, and the miracle of life.
Within the heading, “Irish Miracles,” Doherty quotes Fr. Brian Lawless, Vice-Postulator for the Cause of Matt Talbot, that “at the moment there are two or three possible miracles of a physical nature attributed to Matt Talbot but they are in the very early stages. On the other hand, there are many people who have attributed their recovery from alcoholism or drug addiction to Matt Talbot. If these ‘moral miracles were accepted by the church, I’m sure he would have been canonised years ago,’ Fr.

Lawless says.” [page 4 of this 5 page PDF link above]

Nothing else is mentioned in this article about these “early stage” possible miracles.

In the hunt for miracles

Although his initial focus in this post is on Katherine of Aragon, Fr John Hogan, OCDS, opines on Irish Causes for sainthood, including Matt Talbot, and states that

“we should be pushing, knocking doors and dropping prayer cards all over the world in the hunt for miracles."

http://fatherdirector.blogspot.com/2011/05/new-saint.html#comments

Pope John Paul II wanted to beatify Matt Talbot

In this 2005 homily the homilist recounts a memory of three people who Pope John Paul II said he wanted to beatify.
The key paragraph follows:

He invited the bishops to lunch, half of us one day, the other half the next. These were very relaxed and informal occasions. He told us that he would dearly love to beatify three people, Damien of Monokai, Cardinal Newman and Matt Talbot. He had written a biography of Matt in Polish in his young days. He asked us to pray for a miracle since Matt’s example could be very valuable for those who are addicted to alcohol and drugs. Damien is canonised and Newman is beatified but Matt Talbot is still awaiting a miracle.

Source: http://www.cashel-emly.ie/main/archbishop/massforpope.htm

Finding a miracle attributed to Matt Talbot

According to this brief November, 2002 news item at http://cathnews.acu.edu.au/211/143.php, a miracle attributed to Matt Talbot was rejected by the Vatican. It is surprising that no additional information about this important story has been found online.

Some months later, in July, 2003, a news item titled, "All Matt Talbot saint-maker needs is a miracle," was published and can be found at http://cathnews.acu.edu.au/307/38.php

In June, 2004, the article titled, "Bid for New Irish Saint," appeared, stating that Catholic clerics from the pulpits were appealing for people who were cured from addiction through prayers to Matt Talbot to come forward. This item can be found at
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4161/is_20040627/ai_n12899095