Fr. Simon, in one of his classic heart-warming, history-meets-holiness storytelling moments on Father Simon Says, gave us a powerful peek into Pope Francis’ past, back when he was still Archbishop Jorge Bergoglio of Buenos Aires.
First off, Fr. Simon shared how Archbishop Bergoglio had a huge heart for the marginalized, especially when it came to getting babies baptized. He didn’t want bureaucratic hoops or endless paperwork to keep families, especially the poor… from bringing their children into the Church.
The Mind-Blowing Eucharistic Miracle
Here’s another way that Pope Francis helped us to have a greater belief in the Sacraments:
A discarded consecrated host left in a candle holder in a Buenos Aires church was supposed to dissolve in water, as is custom when a host can’t be consumed. But this one didn’t. Instead, the host began to transform. Over two years, it turned into what looked like a piece of bloody flesh.
Archbishop Bergoglio didn’t sweep it under the rug. He called in an atheist psychiatrist friend (who later became a devout Catholic) to launch a scientific investigation.
🔬💔 Science Meets the Sacred
Samples were sent off for testing in Brazil and the U.S…. without telling the labs what the sample was.
The results:
–Human heart tissue.
-From the left ventricle, which pumps blood to the body.
-The tissue had signs of extreme stress and trauma, as if from someone being tortured.
-The tissue came from someone who was alive when it was sampled.
When the forensic pathologist in the U.S. found out this had been a consecrated host originally, his jaw hit the floor.
From Archbishop to Pope
Fr. Simon gently reminded us that this same Jorge Bergoglio became the Pope we’ve loved and now mourn: Pope Francis. He helped reveal one of the most profound Eucharistic miracles ever recorded.
Thank you, Fr. Simon, for bringing this to life. And thank you, Pope Francis, for being part of something that reminds us: God shows up in the most astonishing ways.
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