Archbishop attributes to the intercession of Cardinal Pell Miraculous Survival of a child in the US.

Mons. Anthony Fisher, Archbishop of Sydney (Australia), attributed this week the apparently miraculous survival of a child from Arizona (United States) to the intercession of the late Australian cardinal George Pell.

According to The Australian newspaper, Mons. Fisher said at a book presentation event on March 26 that he had learned that an 18 -month -old boy had been discharged from a hospital in Phoenix, after spending 52 minutes without breathing after falling into a swimming pool.

The boy, called Vincent, “stopped breathing for 52 minutes,” said Mons. Fisher at the Australian launch of a new Biography about Cardinal George Pell In Campion College, near Parramatta.

“His parents prayed for the intercession of Cardinal Pell,” he continued. “The child survived and the life support was removed without suffering damage to the brain, the lungs or the heart. Now it is fine and his doctors consider him a miracle.”

The child’s uncle, a Catholic priest, contacted Father Joseph Hamilton, former secretary of Cardinal Pell in Rome, to ask for prayers during hospitalization of approximately 10 days.

Fr. Hamilton told The Australian that the family had met the deceased cardinal when he visited Phoenix in December 2021 to promote his Diario in prison Of three volumes, written during his 13 months in prison for child sexual abuse, a conviction that was later unanimously revoked by the highest court in Australia.

Cardinal Pell had also celebrated a white mass for medical professionals in Phoenix.

The purple died of cardiac arrest after hip replacement surgery in Rome, on January 10, 2023. He was 81 years old.

The Catholic Church usually expects a minimum of five years after the death to consider the opening of a cause of beatification. Once the process is opened – which can last for years, decades or even more – a verified miracle is needed to declare a “blessed” person, the last step before it can be canonized.

The Church submits the miracles presented in a cause of beatification to a rigorous scrutiny and examination by medical professionals, to exclude any natural or scientific reason for healing, before declaring them miracles obtained through the wedding intercession of a virtuous man or woman.

Translated and adapted by the ACI Press team. Originally published in CNA.