NEWS & VIEWS
from a CATHOLIC perspective

      LOURDES, France (CWNews.com) - Catholic authorities on Wednesday issued an official ruling that declared a 12-year-old healing was an authentic miracle, only the 66th such declaration at the shrine.

      According to the report a 51-year-old man with multiple sclerosis, who was unable to walk and talk, recovered just hours after bathing in the famous miraculous springs in 1987. Medical tests reported a "total, sudden, stable and lasting recovery" from a paralyzing neurological disease which can sometimes go into remission, but frequently kills, the authorities said.

      The last miracle officially recognized by the Church at Lourdes occurred in 1976, but many other miraculous claims have been made but were either unsubstantiated or inconclusive.

      Meanwhile southwest in Lisbon Pope John Paul II was invited to visit the shrine at Fatima on May 13 this year by Portugal's bishops' conference, according to the Catholic radio network Renascenca on Wednesday.

      The radio report said Bishop Serafim Ferreira e Silva of Leiria-Fatima will formally deliver the invitation to the Holy Father in an audience on Friday. The Pope, known for his devotion to the Virgin, last visited Fatima in 1991 when he came to give thanks for having survived an assassination attempt in Rome 10 years previously.