Healing priest performs ‘miracles’ at St. Jude

They came by the thousands, many in wheelchairs and gurneys and others in their SUVs, to St. Jude church beside Malacañang to attend the Mass of Filipino healing priest Fernando Suarez yesterday – and they were not disappointed.

Suarez, who is based in Canada, was scheduled to celebrate the Mass at 9 a.m. but many seeking to be healed camped at the church’s gate as early as 10 p.m. Tuesday night. The gates opened at 2 a.m. and the church grounds were quickly filled up.

By early morning, the crowd swelled to about 5,000 that the narrow J.P. Laurel St. fronting the Church was blocked by people, requiring extra traffic enforcers and personnel from the Presidential Security Group to manage the flow of people and vehicles.

“You must be ready to be healed and you will only be healed if it is God’s will,” Suarez said in his homily.

After the Mass, Suarez went around inside and outside the Church premises to pray and touch those who pressed him for healing. One by one, he touched the foreheads of those in wheelchairs and made them stand. Many of them cried when they were able to walk again.

“I felt my pain going away and a heavy log on my back removed when he prayed over me,” said Lucita Disipula, 69, who stood up and walked around the church grounds after being touched by Suarez. She instead let her tired sister-in-law who was assisting her sit on her wheelchair.

“Just a while ago I was in pain and could not walk but now I can walk,” Remedios Perez, who resides near Malacañang, said.

Another elderly lady was seen standing and leaving her wheelchair and nurse after Suarez passed by her. The others who got up out of their wheelchairs and gurneys shouted and cried in public, firing up the crowd and forcing Suarez to re-enter the church through a window.

Some Palace employees and officials attended the healing Mass, including Presidential Management Staff chief Secretary Cerge Remonde and Deputy Presidential Spokesman Dr. Anthony Golez.

Remonde said he was seeking healing for his ailing back while Golez said he prayed for his seriously-ill newborn baby.

Because of the huge crowd and Suarez’s intention to pray over all those who attended, it took him more than a couple of hours to go around the small area fronting the church.

As this developed, church officials said they are investigating the reported miracles of Suarez even as they recognize that he has a “special healing gift.”

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iniguez Jr., public affairs chair of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), said that while leaders of the country’s Catholic hierarchy welcome the support shown by thousands of Filipinos to Suarez, they are still “watchful” of his healing masses and activities.

“There are a few people who have been given special gift of healing, and Fr. Suarez is one of them. But Church authorities are on alert,” Iniguez told The STAR.

The bishop believes, however, that the ruling of the Church on whether Suarez was “blessed with miraculous healing gift” might be released only after his death and after he would be nominated to become a saint.

The CBCP official said the Church is tolerant about the faithful who attend the masses of Suarez and believe in his ability to heal the sick.

The 40-year-old Suarez belongs to Companions of the Cross, a Canadian congregation established in the 1980s which founded the Mary Mother of Poor Healing Ministry that goes around the world for missions.

He is scheduled to return to Canada on Feb. 8.   - With Edu Punay