Categories: Travel

Family credits ‘little Cajun saint’ with birth of healthy ‘miracle child’ after disastrous diagnosis

A young Catholic family in New York state credits their newborn’s apparent recovery in the womb from a life-threatening diagnosis to the intercession of Charlene Marie Richard, a devout Catholic daughter who died of leukemia in Louisiana – and who is now on the path to a possible recovery. holiness.

The news was made public recently in social media posts by St. Edward Catholic Church in Richard, Louisiana – the Catholic parish where Charlene Richard grew up. OSV News confirmed the news directly with parents. OSV News is not identifying them at this time in response to their temporary request for privacy as they adjust to life with their newborn.

According to St. Edward’s social media posts, which relayed information the family shared with the parish, the baby’s parents began seeking Richard’s help after receiving a devastating diagnosis during the 20-year-old ultrasound. weeks of the baby. The scan showed that the baby suffered from severe ventriculomegaly, in which the ventricles of the brain are swollen due to cerebrospinal fluid. The baby also suffered from pontocerebellar hypoplasia, a term for a group of conditions leading to impaired brain development, intellectual disability and mobility problems.

St. Edward’s publications revealed that the family was told their baby’s diagnosis meant one of two things: “a severely disabled life or an early infant death.”

Known locally as “the Little Cajun Saint,” Charlene Richard died in 1959 at the age of 12, offering her final days of suffering from acute lymphatic leukemia to various people and their intentions. Witnesses, including Father Joseph Brennan, the hospital chaplain, testified to Richard’s joyful attitude and unwavering faith as she faced death at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Lafayette. Since then, thousands of people have visited his grave and asked for his intercession.

Richard’s cause for sainthood was opened in January 2020 by Bishop J. Douglas Deshotel of Lafayette, La., and approved by the U.S. bishops the following year.

After learning that abortion was the “merciful option” given the baby’s serious prognosis, the New York Catholic family offered Richard a novena. St. Edward’s post then relayed that later, during a follow-up ultrasound on Oct. 28, the parents learned that one of the baby’s two brain abnormalities “had been completely resolved.”

According to the St. Edward’s post, the mother said, “Inspired by what we found, I flew to Richard, Los Angeles, to once again seek Charlene’s help.” » She added: “I met (there) some of the sweetest people who I now call family, and we all prayed at his grave. »

Then, when the baby was born on December 27, the parents discovered they had “just one healthy baby girl.” According to information from the St. Edward post, the results were confirmed after 15 hours in the neonatal intensive care unit. A cranial ultrasound and MRI “showing no signs of brain abnormality”.

St. Edward Parish released a photo of the baby, who the parents named “Charlene Marie” in honor of the “little Cajun saint.” He conveyed the family’s thanks to Charlene Richard and all those who prayed for “our little miracle child.”

OSV News has contacted Father Korey LaVergne, pastor of St. Edward, and is awaiting a response to his request for comment on the apparent healing.

Richard is currently considered a “servant of God”. A cause for sainthood generally requires two miracles approved by the Vatican, one for beatification and a second for canonization.

All cases submitted as potential miracles would be examined by a medical commission, convened by the Dicastery of the Causes of Saints, with specialists – believers and non-believers – examining evidence of scientifically inexplicable healing.

Previously, Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis, president of the Lourdes Medical Observations Office in France, explained to OSV News that these evaluations are governed at each stage by seven criteria, developed by Cardinal Prospero Lambertini (future Pope Benedict XIV) in his 18th century work “On the beatification of the servants of God and the canonization of the blessed”.

The first task is to establish a correct diagnosis, which, within the framework of the second criterion, must have a severe prognosis, said de Franciscis.

Four criteria require that a cure be sudden and unexpected, complete, instantaneous and lasting, and finally, the cure must have “no known possible explanation,” he said.

Whether or not the Vatican concludes that the apparent healing is considered a miracle attributed to Richard’s intercession, the joy of the healthy birth of baby Charlene Marie is shared by the community at large, said Mary-Rose and Ryan Verret, co-founders of the association based in Lafayette. Witness to Love Marriage Training Ministry.

“So many people were praying here (for the family), especially the children,” Mary-Rose Verret told OSV News. “For months, our children have been praying every day on the way to school for the little baby from New York who came to Charlene’s grave. And being able to show them a picture of the baby and say, “The baby is absolutely fine”…”

Answered prayers are both “an acknowledgment of the Holy Spirit” and “the enduring gift of saints and miracles in the Church today,” Ryan Verret said. “It’s a great story to tell.”