A special Catholic church commission is expected to present its opinion shortly on whether or not a possible miracle has occurred at a church in Sokolka, eastern Poland.
The holy host, dropped by a priest at a Catholic mass, was placed in a special vessel, in which it later changed into a red substance. Tests conducted by medical specialists showed it was human heart tissue.
The matter was kept secret for several months and has only recently been picked up by the media.
The church commission, appointed by Archbishop Edward Ozorkowski, Bialystok metropolitan, is to declare whether the event can be classified as a miracle. Its members include three professors from a seminary in Bialystok.
“They are to rule out an intervention of third persons. We have to be morally certain that no one had placed the host on the floor before or had changed it, when it was in the vessels in water, and that all the witnesses speak the truth,” a spokesman of the curia in Bialystok, Andrzej Debski, stated.
When the commission presents its opinion, the Bialystok metropolitan will decide whether to notify the Vatican or not.
Last Sunday, a special mass was celebrated at St Anthony’s church in Sokolka in the intention of the miracle. Meanwhile, the Polish Rationalists Society has turned to prosecutors to launch a probe into the incident. Its representatives say the heart tissue may have belonged to a person who has died only recently and argue that it is necessary to establish its identity to rule out murder. (kk/mmj)