Exploring the Reality of Miracles: A Discussion with Didier van Cauwelaert

2023-12-17 16:45:00

Didier van Cauwelaert sets things straight as soon as he sits down for our interview. “First of all, it is not a book of belief, it is a book of observations which lead us to question our conception of reality, of the laws of nature, of the field of possibilities… If we agree to look into it of course.” The author thus refers to Descartes, just that, to tell us regarding dispositions of the mind which can lead to certain events.

Once the divine trail has been ruled out, do these miracles occurring all over the world only come from unknown powers of our mind or our organism? Is it a mix of the two, the divine and the human, which promotes the right conditions for a miracle to be accomplished? In his book, Didier van Cauwelaert questions the phenomena each time. Whether the intervention is divine in nature or not, something is happening in the bodies of these miraculous people with the instantaneous reconstruction of diseased tissues or organs. Which offers interesting avenues at the medical level. “Doctors dream of being able to reproduce miracles artificially to benefit the community.”

The Church most often seems, this is one of the points of your book, uncomfortable in the face of these miracles. She does everything so that we don’t talk regarding it… Why?

Didier van Cauwelaert. “One might think that the Church is happy when science proves the reality of a miracle. But it’s quite the opposite… One figure explains it quite well: 7,200. This is the total number of cases authenticated by the international medical committee of Lourdes of unexplained and instantaneous cures. Only 70 cases have been officially approved by the Church… It adds its own criteria. Many spectacular cases have never been recognized because the believer was simply… divorced! It’s not just Lourdes and miracles don’t only concern the Christian religion. Islam and Hinduism are also affected.”

What exactly is happening in Muslim worship?

”In the Quran, there are no miracles. The only one recorded there is that of the archangel who dictates the sacred text to the prophet. When there were an increase in cases of miracles in Mecca, as was the case in the 1980s around the healing of Frenchwoman Leila Lahlou, the Islamists threatened Saudi Arabia. It was even considered for a time to create a place like Lourdes in Mecca… Since then, there has been denial and silence. With the release of my book, many Muslims came to meet me to tell me that many other stories than that of Leila Lahlou actually existed…”

Does your own perspective on life and spirituality continue to be influenced by the stories you tell us?

”Beyond the sensational side of the phenomena, what interests me is to see what reflections this has led us to. It is also a great hope given the number of healings that happen even to unbelievers. Do we all have the power at our own level to produce conditions conducive to a miracle? Divine intervention is possible but it is not the only avenue to consider in the cases I study in the book.”

Is there a miracle story that particularly struck you during your research?

”During my childhood in Nice, I tried to highlight my Belgianness by all means (Editor’s note: the author has Belgian ancestors as his name clearly indicates…). And then I found family documents talking regarding a certain Pierre De Rudder. This agricultural worker from East Flanders had his leg crushed, resulting in multiple fractures and gangrene. In short, he was in agony for months. One day he learned of the presence of a replica of Lourdes in a private garden in Oostakker not far from Ghent and wanted to be taken there. This is where the miracle happened, the fractures spontaneously healed and the gangrene disappeared. Doctors might never explain it. After his death, Pierre De Rudder will be exhumed and then autopsied with confirmation of traces of multiple fractures. This is the very first autopsied miracle!”

How does contemporary society react to the idea of ​​“miracles” in the current context of “fake news” and “conspiracy”?

”In this matter, fake news was created by the Vatican… In particular to neutralize and destroy the memory of miracle workers like Padre Pio or Yvonne-Aimée de Malestroit. Everything this nun achieved during the Second World War is simply incredible. In the 1960s, his file arrived on the desk of Cardinal Ottaviani. But the latter rejected it on the simple grounds that there were too many miracles… He even forbade anyone to talk regarding her by making her appear to be a Satanist. Same thing for Padre Pio, who was spied on and accused of sexual turpitude in his own confessional! Everything was done to discredit him. So, the fake news in question is to be found on the side of the Vatican. Let us not forget that the upper echelon of the Church is committed to its role as the air traffic controller. These phenomena are beyond it.”

Can we imagine similarities with so-called near-death experiences?

”The connection I would make between the two is that it invites us to reflect on the powers of consciousness. Is it the brain that secretes consciousness like the liver secretes bile? Many doctors can no longer confine themselves to this explanation given the number of experiences recorded. So, phenomena lacking explanation continue to generate questions and help medical research.”

The last case that you describe in the book is that of the young cyber-apostle Carlos Acutis who evangelized via the Internet… It is the story that might touch the youngest readers.

”Died at the age of 15 in 2006, he is undoubtedly the case most recovered by the current Pope, Francis. He was gifted in computers, in sport, in psychology… At the age of 12, he took on a gigantic project: creating a virtual museum of Eucharistic miracles. On the day of the inauguration of this museum in Rome, he died of devastating leukemia. He will be beatified in 2020 for having created a miracle following his death by saving a young Brazilian who did not have an active pancreas since birth and who called on him to have a normal life and be able to eat normally.

Le dernier livre de Didier van Cauwelaert. ©DR
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