Science and the Miraculous

How the Church Investigates the Supernatural

Michael O'Neill

• Publisher: TAN Books
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN: 9781505116410
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Christian Denominations

It is no secret that the modern secular world denounces the existence of miracles. But the truth is plain and simple: miracles can (and do) happen, and science can prove it.

Some might say that belief in miracles is a thing of the past, relegated to a more credulous and superstitious age before humanity fully embraced the certainty and exactitude of scientific study. Renowned author Michael O'Neill, also known as the "Miracle Hunter, " is here to set the record straight.

According to O'Neill, true miracles are by definition rare, but still undoubtedly occur today. And in this present age of skepticism, where the worship of science and reason have pervaded the culture, the existence of the supernatural is to be appreciated now more than ever before.

Though it may come as a surprise to some, the Catholic Church actually turns to science to assist in the investigation and validation of claims of supernatural phenomena and miracles that appear to violate the laws of nature and our common human experience. Yet this should come as no shock to those who know the Church's pivotal role in scientific progress throughout the centuries, from Gregor Mendel, the father of the study of genetics, to Georges Lemaître, the developer of the "Big Bang Theory."

The Science of Miracles takes readers through the Church's rigorous investigation of miraculous occurrences, including:

? healing miracles from life-threatening conditions;

? statues that exude human tears;

? Eucharistic hosts visually manifesting true flesh and true blood;

? visionaries who see the Virgin Mary in an ecstatic state;

? saints whose bodies lay in a state of perfect preservation for centuries;

? living people whose bodies are marked by the wounds of Christ's crucifixion;

? and more...

The Catholic Church employs a combination of strict, centuries-old criteria for evaluating proposed cases of miracles with the most modern methods of medical examination to arrive at explanations for the purportedly inexplicable. If natural causes can be attributed or if frauds and hoaxes can be exposed, the Church will uncover the truth. But if science can show that miracles can and do happen, what will you believe?

While belief in the supernatural ultimately requires faith, discover in this thorough investigation how science is a gift from God to aid our faith, and to educate our minds about the truths our heart already knows.

1

The History of the Catholic
Church and Science

A Church in Support of Science

To the average person, both Catholic and non-Catholic alike, the Church may be labeled as being squarely opposed to science. No further evidence seems to be needed outside of citing the Galileo affair, the oft debated and misunderstood reaction of the Catholic Church to the astronomer’s support of heliocentrism, the scientific model which states that the earth and other planets revolve around the sun at the center of the solar system.

Yet the words of modern popes paint a different picture of the Church’s official view of science. In an address to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences in 2014, Pope Francis dispelled the notion that faith would have a problem with science with a reminder that everything we find in science points to a Creator: “The Big Bang theory, which is proposed today as the origin of the world, does not contradict the intervention of a divine creator but depends on it. Evolution in nature does not conflict with the notion of Creation, because evolution presupposes the creation of beings who evolve.”⁶

His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI, extolled the unsurpassed value of science: “Art along with science is the highest gift God has given [man].”⁷

Still more, in a 1988 letter to the director of the Vatican Observatory, Pope St. John Paul II even went as far as to indicate the complementarity of science and religion: “Science can purify religion from error and superstition; religion can purify science from idolatry and false absolutes.”⁸

The Catechism of the Catholic Church likewise affirms the absence of conflict between faith and reason: “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.”⁹

In many ways, science owes its advancement to the structures put in place through the growth of Christianity. The Catholic Church has been a patron of science and responsible for the foundation and funding of schools, universities, and hospitals. The development of Catholic nursing and hospital systems reflecting the central Christian virtue of charity has resulted in the establishment and persistence of the Church as the single largest private provider of medical care and research facilities in the world.¹⁰

In the earliest centuries of the Church and beyond, western Europe’s scholarship is tied to the clergy and religious in monasteries and convents with an eventual focus on the natural sciences, mathematics, and astronomy. The Middle Ages then saw the foundation of Europe’s first universities by the Catholic Church. Fr. Stanley L. Jaki, famed physicist and author of The Relevance of Physics (1966) and Science and Creation (1974), argued that “the scientific enterprise did not become viable and self-sustaining until its incarnation in Christian medieval Europe, and that the advancement of science was indebted to the Christian understanding of creation.”¹¹ These universities produced both the scholars and the scientific method.

Alvin J. Schmidt, author of How Christianity Changed the World, suggests that the inductive empirical method of acquiring knowledge—the essential building block of all modern science whereby rational processes are used to study and investigate the world—was the result of belief in a single, rational, personal deity, who as the creator of the natural world was in fact distinct from the natural world, thus opening the doors for its rational study and exploration. This thereby overcame the prevailing and longstanding Aristotelian mindset that for 1,500 years had established the unchallenged notion that all knowledge came solely through the deductive processes of the mind, not the fruits of manual labor. The inductive process came into existence through the contributions of Catholics Robert Grosseteste (c. 1168–1253), a Franciscan bishop and first chancellor of Oxford University, his student Roger Bacon (1214–1294), philosopher William of Occam (1285–1347), and Francis Bacon (1561–1626), who made records of experimental results after careful observation.¹²

Still today, the patronage of sciences by the Catholic Church continues through institutions like the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Vatican Observatory, with the continuation of their long-running contribution to science in astronomy and beyond by the Jesuits, who, with the document Ratio Studiorum (1599), sought to standardize the study of the sciences, along with Latin, Greek, classical literature, poetry, and philosophy, as well as non-European languages and arts. The Jesuits have been called “the single most important contributor to experimental physics in the seventeenth century.”¹³

Even a cursory review of the history of science might serve as a quick reminder that the Catholic Church has led scientific discovery in many fields, and the Scientific Revolution was itself undertaken by people of faith, such as Kepler, Galileo, Pascal, and Newton. Groundbreaking ideas were developed by Catholics, like those of Nicolaus Copernicus (1473–1543) with heliocentrism and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck (1744–1829), whose Lamarckism foreshadowed the theory of evolution. Whole branches of science were founded or advanced dramatically by those who professed the Catholic faith, including Antoine Lavoisier (chemistry), Fr. Nicolas Steno (geology), Fr. Angelo Secchi (astrophysics), Gregor Mendel (genetics), and Fr. Georges Lemaître (cosmology).

Jonathan I. Lunine, PhD, the David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences of Cornell University and Director of the Cornell Center for Astrophysics and Planetary Science, finds that the rigorous pursuit of scientific truth paired with fidelity to revealed truth found in Catholic men and women throughout the ages is the best answer to the question of whether or not there is an inherent conflict between faith and science: “The lives of recent outstanding scientists who were also people of faith provide some of the most powerful arguments of all [that there is no conflict between science and faith].”¹⁴

Contributors of the Church to Scientific Advancement

Throughout history, Catholics have made many contributions to scientific inquiry. Here is a brief list of some of those contributions:

BLESSED HERMANN OF REICHENAU (1013–1054)

Astronomer

Reichenau’s most important scientific contributions were in astronomy, but he also wrote on geometry, arithmetic, history, theology, and music theory.

SAINT HILDEGARD VON BINGEN (1098–1179)

Medicine and Natural History

Bingen wrote treatises on medicine and natural history and was a pharmacist, poet, composer, artist, hagiographer, and playwright. The theological writings of this mystic, visionary, and abbess made her a Doctor of the Church.

SAINT ALBERT THE GREAT (C. 1200–1280)

Philosopher and Natural Scientist

Albert was a bishop who wrote on philosophy, theology, botany, geography, astronomy, zoology, music, and physiology.

ROGER BACON (1219–1294)

The “Grandfather” of the Scientific Method

An English Franciscan and highly regarded academic, Roger Bacon, in concert with theology, studied mathematics, natural history, and light and optics. He was a forerunner of the scientific method, employing hypothesis, prediction, testing, and analysis, and he provided recommendations to Pope Clement IV for improving ecclesiastical studies (resulting in Bacon’s Opus Maius, Opus Minus, and Opus Tertiae).

BISHOP ALBERT OF SAXONY (C. 1320–1390)

Logic and Natural Philosophy

Founder of the University of Vienna, and later serving as the bishop of Halberstadt, Albert is known for his contributions to the study of physics and, with Buridan (c. 1300–after 1358), developed the theory that was a precursor to the study of inertia.

NICOLAUS COPERNICUS (1473–1543)

Father of the Heliocentric Model of the Solar System

Challenging the traditional geocentric model of the solar system, Copernicus proposed a heliocentric model and remained a faithful Catholic. Beyond his interest in astronomy, he earned doctorates in both medicine and law and worked in finance.

FATHER CHRISTOPHER CLAVIUS (1538–1612)

Mathematician

This Catholic priest made contributions to algebra, geometry, astronomy, and cartography, and he worked on the reform of the Gregorian Calendar. As a longtime teacher at Collegio Roman, he influenced decades of students to spread scientific knowledge within the Jesuit Order and beyond through their missionary work.

FATHER BENEDETTO CASTELLI (1578–1643)

Fluid Mechanics

A Benedictine mathematician and longtime friend, supporter, and student of Galileo Galilei, Castelli wrote important works on fluids in motion.

FATHER BONAVENTURA CAVALIERI (1598–1647)

Optics and Motion

Cavalieri worked on the problems of optics and motion. His principle in geometry was a precursor of elements of integral calculus.

FATHER MARIN MERSENNE (1588–1648)

Father of Acoustics

This French priest and mathematician is known for Mersenne prime numbers and Mersenne’s laws, which describe the harmonics of a vibrating string. His seminal work on music theory, Harmonie universelle, earned him the title of “father of acoust...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Halftitle Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Introduction: Faith and Science
• 1. The History of the Catholic Church and Science
• 2. A Church of Miracles
• 3. When the Church Does Not Investigate
• 4. Healing Miracles
• 5. Incorruptibles
• 6. Apparitions
• 7. Eucharistic Miracles
• 8. Weeping Statues and Icons
• 9. The Stigmata
• Conclusion
• Notes