Priest Offers $5000 To Disprove Miracles Of Lourde

[cappie]

Priest offers $5000 to disprove miracles of Lourdes
By Linda Morris
August 30, 2004

A Sydney Catholic priest has challenged sceptics of religious miracles, posting a $5000 bounty for anyone who can prove the Lourdes miracles he has investigated are fakes.

Medical science might explain some cures attributed to the shrine in southern France but not every instance of miraculous healing, says Paul Glynn, a Marist Brother.

Father Glynn and his cousin Bill Dougherty, a former regional newspaper proprietor, have offered the $5000 reward from their own pockets.

Millions of pilgrims have flocked to Lourdes since 1858, when a French peasant girl, Bernadette Soubirous, said she had been visited by an apparition of the Virgin Mary.

The Catholic Church has since recognised 66 miracles at the site, the most recent in 1987. A medical tribunal set up to investigate claims of miracles describes about 6800 cases as medically inexplicable, Father Glynn said. He said the cases had not met the condition of a declared miracle.

Father Glynn, based in Hunters Hill, has interviewed four people and reviewed the case notes of a further 20. He is convinced of their authenticity.

"It can take 12 to 20 years before miracles are even accepted," he said. "There must be a proven physical disease where pre-existing medical conditions have been documented, the cure must be instantaneous ... and it must be complete and permanent.

"They must be prepared to be examined by a medical tribunal and return to Lourdes to be re-examined for several years after."

Father Glynn announced the reward to parishioners of St Kevin's Church, Dee Why, yesterday in an attempt to convince non-believers of the power of faith.

To win, a recognised professor of medicine must review the case medical notes and be prepared to verify and identify an explicable reason for cure and long-term recovery.

Australian Skeptics acknowledged the Lourdes medical tribunal was painstaking in its investigations of alleged miracle cures. But the number of cures accepted as miraculous by the Catholic Church compared to the number of visits was hardly indicative of a statistical link between Lourdes and cures, it said.

It also pointed out that Bernadette herself was not cured, and died of tuberculosis.

Barry Williams, executive officer of the NSW chapter of Australian Skeptics, is one who will not be taking up the challenge.

"It's like trying to prove a negative, which is almost impossible. I suspect many of those so-called cures are no longer alive and $5000 wouldn't come near to covering the costs of an inquiry."

Some of the claims, he said, were "self-delusion", some the result of physiological healing.

[the_rev]

I'm rather quite confused by this.

Is he offering money to say the healings are a hoax or to say healings are real and can only happen through God?

I guess I'm tired and exhausted.

Each time I read it, I still can't figure it out!

[Aloysius]

it's a challenge, like how ironmonk challenges ppl to disprove the Catholic Church

this guy's challenging skeptics to PROOVE it's false. i don't think it's possible, but it should spark quite a bit of scrutiny to the miracles and hopefully some conversions by the scrutinizers who fail to discredit them!

[ilovechrist]

i'm confused as well..

is it a good or bad thing? i'm thinking its a good one..

[Aloysius]

good thing, like an ironmonk challenge.

he's basically sayin "i triple dog dare you to seriously look into these miracles"

[reelguy227]

If he is discrediting it ,like it sounds ,I think its a bunch of carp .Lourdes has been proven ,thats all there is to it.

[Aloysius]

it's a challenge.

like, i bet you $5000 you can't disprove Lourdes!

[reelguy227]

oh

[Theoketos]

It is a good thing.

People will seek out to disprove it and find faith.

[Oik]

[quote]Some of the claims, he said, were "self-delusion", some the result of physiological healing.[/quote]
So they just ignore it and hope it goes a way, then they can scrutinize the Church from a far. Prove the cases of self-delusion and physiolocial healing. Pfft, they can't disporve it because Lourdes is authentic.

[Ash Wednesday]

Triple Dog Dare!!!!!

[Oik]

lol!

[MorphRC]

this should be interesting. Im a bit dodgy on the money part, but i guess the money will get the ball rolling with skeptics.

[Scofizzle]

I am astounded by this preist's faith. Awesome...amazing....fantastic...stuependous....fantasmic.....super cool

And I think the money part will get people interested and then when they see it is a work of God, that these people have been healed, hopefully they will be renewed in their faith.

[Crusader_4]

To me i am always wary of these things as they often get a lot of hype and dont acomplish antying good for anyone involved or often do not bring people any closer to God (not the miracles but the challenges). Thats just my two cents tho.

Edited August 31, 2004 by Crusader_4