Healing services at Father Solanus Casey's monastery draw crowds

Published: 2004-07-22

DETROIT (CNS) -- People who enter St. Bonaventure Monastery chapel for its healing service may walk in as strangers, but by the end of the service their tears and hugs for each other show the compassion they all share. They are connected by the requests of prayers to Capuchin Father Solanus Casey for his intercession for the healing of their loved ones or, sometimes, of themselves. For almost half his priestly life, Father Casey was the doorkeeper at the monastery, where thousands of people experienced his humility and kindness before he died in 1957. In 1995, in recognition of his heroic virtue, the friar was declared venerable. Many people claim miracles have occurred through his intercession, but an authenticated miracle is needed for Father Casey to be beatified, the next step in the sainthood process. During the healing services at the monastery, held at 2 p.m. every Wednesday, a microphone is passed around to people so they can express their needs.

Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .