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Edmund Rice - The Man

Education & Edmund

People keep enquiring about the progress of the Edmund Rice Cause and the role of miracles.... There is both encouragement and disappointment in this area. There is encouragement in the number of people from all over the world who write in to claim that through the intercession of Blessed Edmund Rice their prayers have been answered. Many indeed claim to have experienced a physical or spiritual healing through such prayers. All of this is encouragement that there is true devotion to Blessed Edmund out there. Monsignor Robert Sarno, my mentor at the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Rome, keeps reassuring me that everything, bar the approval of a miracle, is now in place for Edmund's canonisation.He says

We should bombard heaven, being always mindful that there is our time – and God's time. We should, too, be mindful of the saying: "Act as if everything depends on you; pray as if everything depends on God."

The disappointment comes from the fact that the vast majority of 'cures' that we have on file do not generate sufficient medical evidence to convince the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome, despite the fact that the people involved are convinced that there has been an exceptional answer to their prayers. Thus, we have had reports of 'cures' in Cork, Waterford, Callan, St Lucia, Buenos Aires, Melbourne, Liverpool, Toronto, India, to name but a few locations. An added disappointment is that I only hear about some possible cures, merely by accident, despite the many requests to Provinces and Regions to forward all information. One Region (whose blushes I wish to spare)) has still not forwarded details of a supposed 'cure' that occurred over two years ago, despite several requests from me and promises from them! Maybe we don't wish to have Edmund canonised? As we all know, miracles do not grow on trees.

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