Parents believe healing of sick boy offers blueprint for Holy Land peace

Published: 2004-06-03

JERUSALEM (CNS) -- Two nurses and a social worker warmly greet Anton Hinn, 10, as he plays a computer game in the Oncology and Hematology Pediatric Day Care Unit at Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital. Anton smiles and tells them he is fine, but it has been a long year in which he and his mother, Catholics from Ramallah, West Bank, have been coming to the Israeli hospital for chemotherapy to treat his leukemia. He is in remission and receives only maintenance treatment; the prognosis is good. The Hinn family hopes this will be one of his last visits to the hospital. Since he became ill, Anton has worn a small cross, a medallion of the Virgin Mary, and two small pouches, both with prayers asking for protection, pinned on his shirt. He and his mother, Vida, pray the rosary every day. His mother said she and her husband would like their son to become a priest when he is older, as a gift to Mary for the protection she provided him during his illness. "I will never forget what they did for my son," said Anton's father, Xander, who owns a barbershop in Ramallah. "They were like angels for us."

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