A Rigorous Validation Process
The official recognition of the 72nd miracle of Lourdes culminated on April 16, 2025, when Mons. Vincenzo Carmine Orofino, bishop of the diocese of Tursi-Lagonegro in Basilicata (Italy), proclaimed «the prodigious and miraculous nature of Mrs. Raco’s healing and the unequivocal value of the divine sign of this healing.» The case dates back to the summer of 2009, when Antonia Lofiégo (née Raco), then a 58-year-old woman affected by primary lateral sclerosis (PLS), participated in a pilgrimage to Lourdes organized by the Union of Pilgrimages of the Italian Episcopate.
The Immersion That Changed Everything
After immersing herself in one of the pools fed by water from the spring considered miraculous, Mrs. Raco experienced an immediate and definitive improvement in the symptoms of her disease, a degenerative motor neuron disease with no known treatment and considered to have an inexorable progression. Initially discreet about her experience, she consulted her doctors in Italy, who confirmed the disappearance of clinical signs. In March 2010, she reported her healing to the Bureau Médical de Lourdes (BML), initiating a long verification process.
The Scrutiny of Medical Science
The file was subjected to five sessions of collegial medical analysis over several years. Independent specialists, including Professor Vincenzo Silani from the Department of Neurology at the University of Milan, confirmed the original diagnosis of PLS. In 2017, the BML issued a «certification of healing» and referred the case to the International Medical Committee of Lourdes (CMIL), composed mainly of university professors. Uncertainty in the medical literature about the diagnostic criteria for PLS initially slowed down the decision.
A Scientific Consensus That Cleared the Way
The publication in 2020 of an international consensus on the diagnostic criteria for PLS, validated by the scientific community in 2024, allowed the CMIL to make a pronouncement. In November 2024, after a vote where seventeen members voted in favor of the unexplained healing and four against, the required qualified majority of two-thirds was reached. Professor Silani, co-author of said consensus, declared to the newspaper Le Figaro: «A scientist must always learn and recognize reality, even when it seems humanly incomprehensible… I resigned myself to the idea of not being able to provide an acceptable scientific explanation today.»
The Final Step: Ecclesiastical Discernment
With medical endorsement, the file passed to ecclesiastical authority. The bishop of Tarbes and Lourdes communicated the results to the bishop of Tursi-Lagonegro, who in 2025 constituted a diocesan theological and medical commission. After its study, the formal recognition of the miracle proceeded. Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis, head of the BML and secretary general of the CMIL, highlighted the uniqueness of the case: «It is the first case of recovery from a degenerative disease of the first motor neuron.» De Franciscis, who affirms his Christian faith, concluded humbly: «Sometimes, faced with healing stories, I can only raise my hands and say: ‘I don’t know how to explain it.'»
Original source: fsspx.news (published on July 29, 2025)
Photo: Jean-Baptiste D. on Unsplash
