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Proxmiate and Ultimate
A medical note on the phenomena at Lourdes
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2024
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There is still a tendency, which will probably persist as long as this planet remains inhabited, to belittle the miracles at Lourdes. This is exemplified by two fairly recent books. I want, in this article, to suggest that the attempts to explain away, as it were, the supernatural element in the recorded events, rests on the failure of those who try to do so to distinguish between what Catholics call proximate and ultimate causes.
Few modem writers who have taken the trouble to go into the medical aspects of Lourdes would deny that remarkable recoveries do occur there, and that, in the prevailing circumstances, the standards of medical detective work undertaken to exclude mistaken diagnosis, hysteria and fraud, are high. It is true that the great majority of officials and doctors who make up the three bodies which handle the evidence (the Medical Bureau at Lourdes, the Medical Commission, the Canonical Commission set up by the Bishop) are Catholics; but it is unlikely that these men, concerned with their own and their Church’s good name, would deliberately deceive both Catholics and non-Catholics so successfully for so long. I shall not here concern myself with the consideration of either the cruder explanations put forward to account for the cures at Lourdes, or with the history of Bernadette with the growth of the medical services which now supervise the investigation of alleged miraculous cures. These aspects of the shrine’s activities have been dealt with in many books, to which the reader is referred.
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- Copyright © 1958 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 Weatherhead, L. D., Psychology, Religion and Healing (Hodder and Stoughton, 1951). West, D. J., Eleven Lourdes Miracles (Duckworth, 1957). See Appendix for a note on this book.
2 Leuret, F., and Bon, H., Les Guérisons Miraculeuses Modernes (Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1950; English translation by John C. Barry and the author of the present article, Modern Miraculous Cures, published by Peter Davies, 1957). Cranston, Ruth The Mystery of Lourdes (Evans, 1956).
3 Trochu. F., Saint Bernadette Soubirous (Longmans, 1957). The first doctors who examined Bernadette suggested hallucinations to account for her statements. Dr West and Dr Weatherhead lay stress on the psychological aspects of the cures. It is natural for those not inclined to sympathize with Lourdes to think of hysteria (in the proper technical sense of the word) as a reasonable label for Bernadette and the Lourdes cures. I do not think Bernadette’s history and behaviour can be fitted into the sort of description of hysteria-or any other psychological disease–such as found in Price’s Practice o Medicine, without strain. The same can be said of the cures. It is the over-all picture that is impressive; it is this, plus what Catholics believe to be reasonable grounds for belief in God, our Lord, our Lady and Bernadette, and the possibility of miracles, that. with God’s grace, keeps us believers. It may also make us a little careless of the response of unbelievers to what seems from their point of view to be our carelessness–it is this we have to try and eradicate.
4 Leuret and Bon, op.cit.. Cranston, op. cit., Sandhurst, B.G., Miracles Still Happen (Burns, Oates, 1957).
5 Leuret and Bon, op. cit. This cure was also described in the Daily Mail in 1957.
6 There is an excellent discussion in the 1956 issue of Philosophical Studies on the use of the word ‘probability’.
7 Weatherhead, op. cit.
8 I do not give references to these kinds of cases, since little difficulty would be experienced in finding the relevant literature by anyone wishing to do so; but the following may be cited as examples: Levison, V. B., ‘Spontaneous Regression of Malignant Melanoma’, British Medical Journal, vol. i, 1955. page 458; and, Rose, L., Some Aspects of Paranormal Healing’, ibid., vol. ii, 1954, page 1329.
9 Leuret and Bon, op. cit.
10 Cranston, op. cit.
11 ibid.
12 ibid.
13 This word needs clearer definition by Catholics; I suggest various degrees be set up and all cases classified under them. Cf. West, and Leuret-Bon, opp. citt.
14 Levison, art. cit., and Rose, art. cit.
15 Leuret and Bon, op, cit.
16 A book which best illustrates the sort of investigations I am suggesting is that of Mr B. G. Sandhurst (see Footnote 4). This layman’s approach, plus that of a doctor’s technical view-point, would do admirably.
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