{"id":71797,"date":"2024-08-21T21:14:09","date_gmt":"2024-08-21T20:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/?p=71797"},"modified":"2024-08-21T21:14:10","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T20:14:10","slug":"top-three-eucharistic-miracles-debunked-by-catholic-chemist-dr-stacy-trasancos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/theskepticalzone.com\/wp\/top-three-eucharistic-miracles-debunked-by-catholic-chemist-dr-stacy-trasancos\/","title":{"rendered":"Top three Eucharistic miracles debunked by Catholic chemist Dr. Stacy Trasancos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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This is a skeptical Website, where empirical arguments in support of supernatural claims are subjected to heavy scrutiny. The subject of today’s post is Eucharistic miracles<\/a>, which if true would violate the laws of chemistry. I happened to attend a Catholic Mass last Saturday evening. It was in a cathedral, but I won’t say exactly where it was, as I wish to respect the privacy of those who attended. I was sitting at the back of the church, which is where bad Catholics like myself tend to sit. At this time in the liturgical year, the Mass readings<\/a> focus heavily on the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist: that when the priest celebrating Mass says the words of consecration over the bread and wine (“This is my body … This is the chalice of my blood…” – full text here<\/a>), the bread and wine, while remaining unchanged in their outward appearance and their empirical properties, are actually transformed into Jesus Christ’s body and blood, which spiritually nourishes those members of the Church who receive the Eucharist worthily, and who believe it to be the body and blood of Christ (which they confess when they say “Amen” at Holy Communion). The priest celebrating the Mass which I attended had a fervent faith in the Eucharist, and he said he wanted his parishioners to say their Amens more enthusiastically when receiving Communion, so during his sermon, he attempted to inspire faith in his audience by talking about Eucharistic miracles<\/a>, of which (he said) there were 107<\/a> that had been officially certified by the Church as worthy of belief by Catholics (although I should point out that they are in no way obliged to believe in them). Naturally, the priest didn’t have time to discuss them all, so he proceeded to focus on the best-known one: the miracle of Lanciano<\/a>, said to have taken place in the eighth century as a sign given to a Catholic priest-monk who was having doubts about the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

What was remarkable about this miracle was that the bread and wine didn’t<\/em> maintain their outward appearance during the celebration of the Mass. Instead, they had visibly changed<\/em> into human flesh and blood, which had been in recent years been authenticated by scientists<\/strong>. What’s more, the blood type was AB<\/strong>, the same as the blood type found on the Shroud of Turin. I’m sure that many of the people listening to the sermon would have found this miracle story extremely impressive. Naturally, I said nothing, but I could not help thinking that religious faith should not be supported by bad arguments. Unbeknownst to the good priest who was giving the sermon, the three best-known eucharistic miracles had already been debunked<\/strong> by Dr. Stacy Trasancos, a devout Catholic chemist with a Master’s degree in theology, who is also a mother of seven and a grandmother of six.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One common myth regarding the miracle of Lanciano is that it was authenticated by the World Health Organization<\/strong>. For example, the Catholic Website therealpresence.org<\/a> in its description<\/a> of the miracle of Lanciano, declares (bolding and links are mine – VJT):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1970, the Archbishop of Lanciano and the Provincial Superior of the Conventual Franciscans at Abruzzo, with Rome\u2019s approval, requested Dr. Edward Linoli<\/strong>, director of the hospital in Arezzo and professor of anatomy, histology, chemistry, and clinical microscopy, to perform a thorough scientific examination on the relics of the miracle which had occurred twelve centuries earlier. On March 4, 1971, the professor presented a detailed report<\/a> of the various studies carried out… This report was published in The Sclavo Notebooks in Diagnostics<\/em> (Collection #3, 1971) and aroused great interest in the scientific world. Also, in 1973, the chief Advisory Board of the World Health Organization<\/strong> appointed a scientific commission to corroborate Linoli\u2019s findings. Their work lasted 15 months and included 500 tests.<\/strong> It was verified that the fragments taken from Lanciano could in no way be likened to embalmed tissue. As to the nature of the fragment of flesh, the commission declared it to be living tissue because it responded rapidly to all the clinical reactions distinctive of living beings. Their reply fully corroborated Professor Linoli\u2019s conclusions. In the extract summarizing the scientific work of the Medical Commission of the WHO and the UN<\/strong>, published in Dec. 1976 in New York and Geneva, declared that science, aware of its limits, has come to a halt<\/strong>, face to face with the impossibility of giving an explanation.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Other highly credulous accounts of the alleged WHO investigation can be found here<\/a> and here<\/a>. Interestingly, Catholic apologist Matt Nelson<\/strong> repeats the same claim in an article here<\/a>, which cites a report<\/a> from zenit.org, but if you scroll through the comments on Nelson’s article, the very last one quotes from a letter signed by WHO archivist Reynald Erard<\/strong>, the final paragraph of which reads as follows:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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So we are not sure how this story started about WHO\u2019s involvement, but other than many citing the https:\/\/zenit.org\/articles\/physician-tells-of-eucharistic-miracle-of-lanciano\/<\/a>, we have found nothing else that supports any connection between WHO \u2013 the Eucharistic Miracle of Lanciano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Best regards,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reynald Erard<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WHO Records and Archives<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Stacy Trasancos<\/strong>, who is a trained scientist, does an excellent job of shooting down the myth about the WHO investigating the miracle of Lanciano in the seven-minute video clip below (which is actually an excerpt from a longer interview with Catholic apologist Gary Michuta):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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