Vatican confirms Mother Teresa 'miracle'

[Jahnava Nitai Das]

Vatican confirms Mother Teresa 'miracle'

Action brings nun a step closer to canonization

From Satinder Bindra

Tuesday, October 1, 2002 Posted: 3:59 PM EDT (1959 GMT

 

KOLKATA, India (CNN) -- Two things are certain. Doctors said a cancerous tumor ballooned Monika Besra's stomach to the size of a woman's in the last trimester of pregnancy. Now, the cancer is gone.

 

The mystery surrounding her recovery will bring the sainthood of Roman Catholic nun Mother Teresa one step closer. Besra, 30, claims that within 24 hours of arriving at a home operated by the Mother Teresa's order and praying to the deceased missionary, her tumor vanished.

 

Besra's sudden and complete recovery stunned her doctors, who insist their diagnosis was accurate. They have repeatedly examined her for signs of surgery and found none.

 

After consulting with doctors, a Vatican panel found no scientific explanation for the Kolkata homemaker's recovery and deemed her healing a miracle, an Italian news agency reported.

 

The church has conferred the title of "venerable" on Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, renowned around the world for dedicating her life to the poor. Now, if the church can establish that Mother Teresa performed another miracle, she will be declared a saint.

 

Besra's physician, R.N. Bhattaccharya, agrees with the Vatican committee's conclusion. "I did not find any reason that without an operation a tumor of such size would disappear overnight," he said. "So I think maybe the Mother's blessings were on Monika...."

 

The committee's conclusion launches the fourth step of a five-part process in designating Mother Teresa a saint.

 

Doctors had determined that Besra's tumor was the size of a 7-month-old fetus. They elected not to perform surgery, believing she was too weak to survive an operation.

 

As a last measure, in September 1998, Besra went to The Missionaries of Charity, a home Mother Teresa's order operates.

 

"As soon as I stepped into the church, there was a photograph of Mother Teresa, and there was a light from the photograph that came toward me and I was stunned," Besra told CNN. "Later, the sisters prayed for me, and I went to sleep. When I got up at 1 in the morning, I found the big tumor had disappeared.''

 

The Roman Catholic church is bending its own rules by starting the beatification process for the late nun before the usual five-year waiting period after death. Mother Teresa died in 1997, but she is purportedly on the fast track to sainthood because the pope is one of her biggest supporters. He wants to promulgate her message of love and kindness to the poor.

 

Besra said she thinks about Mother Teresa all the time, and her doctor said it is a professional milestone for him.

 

"It is difficult to describe what I felt with this whole event," Bhattaccharya said. "But this is one of the very wonderful experiences that I ever had in my medical career."