‘A voice told me not to be
afraid’: The story of Lourdes’ 72nd recognized miracle
By Solène Tadié
CNA Newsroom, Jul 26, 2025 / 11:15 am
Antonia Raco, a 67-year-old Italian woman long
affected by an incurable neurodegenerative illness, was officially introduced
to the press on July 25 in Lourdes, where her healing was recognized as the
72nd miracle attributed to the intercession of the Virgin Mary since the
apparitions of 1858.
In
a moment of great joy, the 72nd miracle of Lourdes Antonia Raco spoke about her
miracle. An incredible experience for many to witness on our pilgrimage and a
great reminder that we are all pilgrims of hope. pic.twitter.com/Y0Ahj4zOcN
— Archdiocese of Liverpool
(@lpoolcatholic) July 25, 2025
Diagnosed in 2006 with amyotrophic lateral
sclerosis (ALS) — a progressive and fatal condition — Raco experienced a
recovery that defied medical explanation.
First announced by the Sanctuary of Lourdes on
April 16, the recognition marked the culmination of 16 years of medical,
canonical, and pastoral inquiry. Raco, a mother and active parishioner from
Basilicata in southern Italy, had been living with the disease for several
years when she traveled to Lourdes in 2009.
“I had wanted to go to Lourdes since I was a
child,” she recalled. That wish came true that summer, when she and her
husband, Antonio, traveled to the shrine with the Italian pilgrimage
association Unitalsi.
The experience, however, was not exactly as she had
once imagined: She arrived in a wheelchair, already struggling to breathe and
swallow.
On the second day, sanctuary volunteers brought her
to the baths. “We prayed together. That’s when I heard a beautiful young female
voice say three times: ‘Don’t be afraid!’” she recounted during the press
conference in Lourdes, held in the presence of religious and medical
authorities.
Raco wore the white veil and uniform of the
Hospitallers of Lourdes — the volunteer caregivers she now joins each year,
assisting the sick with the same compassion once shown to her.
“At that moment, I burst into tears and prayed for
the intentions I had brought with me.”
She described a sudden, sharp pain in her legs
during immersion, as though “they were taken away from me.” She did not
disclose what had happened to anyone during her stay and returned home in a
wheelchair.
It was there, in her living room with her husband,
that she again heard the same voice urging her, “Tell him! Call him!” Obeying
the voice, she called out to her husband, who had just stepped into the
kitchen. “Something has happened,” she told him.
In that moment, she stood unaided for the first
time in years. Overcome with emotion, the couple embraced, crying together as
they realized she was cured.
Though overjoyed, Raco was initially unsure of how
to speak about her experience. She eventually confided in a parish priest in
her diocese of Tursi-Lagonegro in Basilicata, who urged her to undergo medical
evaluation.
Soon after, the local archbishop who had
accompanied the pilgrimage that year, Francesco Nolè, visited her and, after
hearing her story, told her: “Antonietta, the Lord has entered your home and
given you a gift — but it is not for you alone. It is for all of us.”
The road to recognition took more than a decade of
thorough medical evaluation and expert review. “There is no cure for ALS,”
noted Professor Vincenzo Silani, a leading neurologist involved in the
investigation. He was among those who confirmed both the diagnosis and the
inexplicability of Raco’s recovery. “Patients are doomed to get a little worse
every day.”
Dr. Alessandro de Franciscis, the permanent doctor
at the Lourdes Sanctuary, reminded the audience that the Church considers a
healing miraculous only if it is sudden, complete, lasting, medically
inexplicable, and not attributable to treatment or gradual recovery.
These criteria, which continue to guide the
Church’s discernment today, were first established by Cardinal Prospero
Lambertini, later Pope Benedict XIV.
Debate within the International Medical Committee
of Lourdes (CMIL) was initially inconclusive when the case was first presented
in 2019. But a new international consensus on the diagnosis of ALS, published
in 2020, provided the framework for reassessment. In 2023, Silani reevaluated
Raco in Milan and confirmed the definitive cure.
Finally, in November 2024, a secret vote was held
among 21 members of the International Medical Committee of Lourdes: 17 voted in
favor of an unexplained, complete, and lasting cure — meeting the two-thirds
majority required by Church criteria.
Following the positive medical vote, the case was
referred to the current bishop of Raco’s home diocese, Vincenzo Carmine
Orofino, who formally recognized the miracle on April 16 of this year.
Bishop Jean-Marc Micas of Tarbes and Lourdes, who
participated in the scientific process without voting, praised the rigor and
transparency of the medical discussions. “What impressed me most,” he said,
“was the freedom of the experts. They are not there to defend a cause but to
seek the truth.”
He also reminded the participants that miracles
never impose faith. “Even the Resurrection did not force anyone to believe,” he
said. “A miracle is a sign — a gift to be received in the light of
faith.”
Closing the press briefing, the rector of the
sanctuary, Father Michel Daubanes, expressed deep emotion and gratitude as he
recalled the honor of announcing the miracle during the 6 p.m. rosary on Holy
Thursday, April 17, just minutes before it was proclaimed at the cathedral of
Tursi-Lagonegro.
“We often say: ‘If I saw a miracle, I would
believe.’ But the truth is: If I believe, I can see miracles,” he reflected.
“This healing is not just a story from the past. It is a living testimony that
continues to bear fruit.”
Solène
Tadié is the Europe Correspondent for the National Catholic Register. She is
French-Swiss and grew up in Paris. After graduating from Roma III University
with a degree in journalism, she began reporting on Rome and the Vatican for
Aleteia. She joined L’Osservatore Romano in 2015, where she successively worked
for the French section and the Cultural pages of the Italian daily newspaper.
She has also collaborated with several French-speaking Catholic media
organizations. Solène has a bachelor’s degree in philosophy from the Pontifical
University of Saint Thomas Aquinas.
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