Vatican doctors reviewing Delille case

While doctors affiliated with the Vatican’s Congregation for the Causes of Saints still are reviewing evidence submitted for a healing that could lead to the beatification of Mother Henriette Delille 

– the foundress of the Sisters of the Holy Family in pre-Civil War New Orleans – Archbishop Gregory Aymond said his recent meeting in Rome with the cardinal who leads the congregation reiterated the need to continue vigorously promoting her cause.

Archbishop Aymond met in late June at the Vatican with Cardinal Angelo Amato, prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, and the congregation’s staff to get an update on the investigation into the 1998 healing of Marilyn Groves, a 4-year-old from Houston who recovered from a septic lung infection after her family had prayed for the intercession of Venerable Henriette.

More examination needed
Archbishop Aymond said the congregation’s doctors “still have some questions that need to be answered in order for the doctors to assert that there is no medical explanation for the healing.”

“We’re still hopeful, and we certainly very much believe in the holiness of Mother Henriette,” Archbishop Aymond said.

While that medical case is being reviewed, Archbishop Aymond asked for those devoted to Venerable Henriette to continuing praying for her intercession in cases where medical science appears to have no answers.
 

“I want to once again place this holy woman before us as a model and as a servant of God,” Archbishop Aymond said.

Sister Eva Regina Martin, congregational leader of the Sisters the Holy Family, echoed the archbishop’s calls for prayers that their foundress would continue on the road to sainthood.
 

“A miracle needs to be documented and authenticated, so eyewitnesses alone are insufficient,” Sister Eva Regina said. “Medical, scientific, psychiatric and theological experts are consulted. If a scientific, medical or psychological explanation exists for what had only appeared to be a miracle, then it isn’t an authentic miracle. Only immediate, spontaneous and inexplicable phenomena are up for consideration as authentic miracles.
 

“In order for Venerable Henriette to get to the beatification stage, we are in need of a miracle, an immediate, spontaneous and inexplicable miracle. Many favors have been obtained through her intercession, but the major one for beatification that we are looking for is the one just described.”

Sister Eva Regina urged Catholics “to pray and continue to submit any given miracles that have been obtained through her intercession.”

There are four steps in the journey to sainthood in the Catholic Church: Servant of God, Venerable, Blessed and Saint. Evidence must be presented to persuade church officials that the person in question in fact lived a virtuous life, had faith and had the support and help of God.
 

The cause for Mother Henriette, who founded the Sisters of the Holy Family in 1842 to educate slaves and care for the poor and elderly, began in 1988 when Archbishop Philip Hannan asked the Vatican for permission to move forward. When this was done she became known as a Servant of God.
 

Archbishop Hannan formed an archdiocesan tribunal for the purpose of beginning an investigation into her life. Witnesses were called before the tribunal to recount concrete facts on the exercise of Christian virtues considered heroic, that is, the theological virtues of faith, hope and charity, and the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance and fortitude and others specific to her state in life.
 

In 1997, Archbishop Francis Schulte introduced Mere Henriette’s cause to the bishops of the United States, who unanimously endorsed the pastoral timeliness of the cause.

Once the diocesan investigation was finished in 2005, the documentation was packaged and delivered to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. The postulator for that phase, Dr. Andrea Ambrosi, prepared a “positio,” a summary document making the case that she had exhibited heroic exercise of virtue.
 

The positio underwent an examination by nine theologians and nine historians. The majority of the theologians approved the positio, and the cause was passed on for examination by cardinals and bishops who are members of the congregation. They also issued a favorable judgment.

On March 2, 2010, the congregation voted unanimously to approve a declaration that Servant of God Henriette practiced “heroic virtue.” Pope Benedict XVI approved the decree a short time later, and Mother Henriette was declared Venerable.
 

Sister Eva Regina asked anyone with information about a healing through the intercession of Mother Henriette to contact the sisters at Sisters of the Holy Family, 6901 Chef Menteur Hwy., New Orleans, LA 70126 or [email protected].

Peter Finney Jr. can be reached at [email protected].