Testimony of Maria Margarita Chavez:
An element that could be important in the process of beatification of the Servant of God, known more in the world that in her hometown.
In Florida the first miracle attributed to Luisa Piccarreta. The canonical process started.
The testimony of Margarita: “Luisa Piccarreta saved my life”
Words of hope from Florida. Margarita experienced the intercession of Luisa for her recovery
.According to American doctors, it is a miracle, the first that occurred through the intercession of Luisa Piccarreta.
Acute pneumonia combined with other complications had put the life of Maria Margarita Chavez in serious danger: according to the team that was treating her, she had less than 48 hours left to live. Then the inexplicable cure: “the Tuesday after Easter in 2007, they brought me a relic of Luisa and my lungs started to heal,” she herself recounted at the Conference on the “Divine Will” which was held in April in Corato. An element that could be important in the process of beatification of the Servant of God, known more in the world that in her hometown.
For this reason, Bishop Pichierri asked the association named after Luisa to begin the “canonical process” to “gather the first testimonies” before some of the main characters pass away. The main reference is the mother of Maria Margarita, who is now elderly.
“To respond to this invitation – confirms Sabino Lastella, president of the association Luisa Piccarreta – we worked to institute a due process in the diocese of residence of Chavez, and that is in Miami, Florida.”
In late May, the bishop of Miami, Mgr. Thomas Wenski, gave his approval, and “at this time we are contacting those who are part of the ecclesiastical tribunal,” added Lastella. The Interrogatories will be held: between December and January twelve witnesses should be heard. “Soon we will have a final schedule – Lastella continued – and at the conclusion of the work it is expected to take two days to meet and discuss in Miami, as the year of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Luisa is still going on.”
Once all the documents, with all the seals of the Archbishop of Miami, have been prepared, they will be sent to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints at the Vatican through the postulation.
To understand what this entails in the cause of beatification. we turned to Don Sergio Pellegrini, assistant ecclesiastic of the Little Children of the Divine Will. “Once the verification of the writings of Luisa (still in progress) has been completed, the Cause will begin, and it will be possible to develop the “Positio”, an annotated biography needed so that the venerability of Luisa is recognized.” Only then what science now calls a miracle “carry out its immediate effect in regard to the beatification” confirms Don Sergio.
To talk about a miracle recognized by the Church, the approval of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints is required. “The testimonies will be evaluated – explained don Sergio – and any further investigations that the congregation will want to make.”
The story of Margherita. Born in Cuba on May 18, 1959, she lives in Miami with her mother Dolores and her son Christopher. April 4, 2007 – during Holy Week, as she herself wished to point out – she was hospitalized in the intensive care unit of the hospital in Miami and in the care of doctor Mario Almeida who in 2006 had treated her bronchopneumonia found on her return from a trip to Italy. “I went to Italy to visit the places where Luisa lived and to meet Sister Assunta” said Margherita during the Conference.
On April 6, the medical case of the woman continued to get worse, the doctors decided to intubate her and do a lung biopsy . Connected to an artificial respirator, Margarita went into a coma after receiving the sacraments of confession and anointing of the sick.
On April 10, the Tuesday of the First Week of Easter, Father Cioffi put a relic of Luisa on the chest of Margherita, while around her they were reading the prayers and the writings of Luisa. The next day the first unexplained improvements were seen on x-ray: in a few days Margherita began to breathe on her own and could serenely face also the third kidney transplant.
Margarita remembers about her state of unconsciousness: “The Lord showed me the intrinsic evil of humanity. I was in a place of the elderly and the dying without being able to move, the workers took advantage of us, they gave sleeping pills to have no trouble. I still recall the images of a place where they were preparing the bodies of the dead people. As I was lying on a table, the Lord Jesus let me hear the illicit and malicious conversations of those who were around me. They put me in a coffin, leaving out an arm. The coffin was too small, my body would not fit. The pain I felt was very intense.
Then came a man, dressed in a white coat, and I began to ask Jesus to have mercy on me. The more I begged pity from the Lord, the more the man squeezed my hand. I remained like that for a long time: he would be hammering my arm, and kept trying to close the coffin with my arm hanging outside. This lasted a long time. The man kept telling me that if I stopped asking Jesus for mercy, he would leave me alone and would not torture me anymore, but I did not stop asking Jesus for mercy. Then, I found myself in front of our Lord Jesus Christ who told me, "Daughter, your sins are forgiven." Immediately, I saw coming out of me, and I felt coming out of me, like a smoke, a breath, a black shadow. Then, my body felt very light. I felt clean.”
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