Priest Urging Sainthood for Father Serra Reports Miracle

A priest who has worked for decades to persuade the Roman Catholic Church to make Father Junipero Serra a saint believes he has found a medical miracle that could canonize the founder of California’s missions.

But a scoliosis specialist said Thursday that he doubts Mary Schlientz was miraculously cured of curvature of the spine. And one of her doctors thinks modern medicine was more responsible than prayers to Father Serra.

“I have a lot of people recover without operations or any real good explanation,” said T. Y. K. Lawrence, a cardiologist at Childrens Hospital in Los Angeles, who treated Schlientz for a related heart murmur. “She’s cured. I guess you could call it a miracle, but it’s not completely out of the ordinary.”

Dr. Robert Winter, an orthopedic surgeon in Minneapolis, Minn., and a scoliosis expert, said his studies show that one in 50 cases “can result in the complete loss of curvature if treated correctly.”

“There’s no miracle,” Winter said. “I could show you dozens of cases like this from our files.”

Father Noel Maholy of Santa Barbara recently presented the Schlientz case to officials of the Catholic Church in Rome and said this week they told him it appeared to be a miracle that, if proven, could lead to sainthood for Father Serra.

“This is still at the preliminary stages, but it looks good now,” said Maholy, who spent the spring in Rome. “I’ve been told to gather the scientific evidence and send it back to Rome. If their medical board is impressed, then we go from there.”

Serra, who founded California’s missions, was recommended for sainthood in 1934, 150 years after his death. The move is controversial because many American Indians say the mission system was cruel to their ancestors.