Anger is rising in western New York, as the embattled Catholics of Buffalo learned that just days ago, their bishops may have denied them an avenue of grace by refusing to investigate a possible eucharistic miracle.
On Friday, Church Militant spoke with one disaffected Catholic of the diocese, Mary Ellen Sanfilippo, about extraordinary events that began unfolding in late November at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Springbrook, New York.
Sanfilippo said that a consecrated host was accidentally dropped on the floor of the church during Mass. Retrieving the host, a deacon submerged it in an ablution cup and placed it inside the tabernacle for later disposal. On November 30, the host, still inside the water-filled receptacle, was discovered exuding a deep red substance that appeared to be blood.
Sanfilippo acknowledged that the red material seeping from the consecrated host may have been a purely natural substance. But she is dismayed that the Catholics of Buffalo were denied the opportunity to determine its origin by order of their bishops.
“I am absolutely outraged by what has happened in our diocese,” she said. “The Eucharist is the center of the Catholic belief system, something of great importance that you don’t throw away.”
Sanfilippo was so upset, in fact, that she contacted the chancery for answers.
“Bishop Malone doesn’t talk to anyone,” she said. “He hides from people.”
But Sanfilippo has known Grosz for two decades, so she contacted him to demand why he had refused to preserve the sacred host for investigation.
Grosz attributed the final decision to Malone. Grosz told Sanfilippo he was “very reluctant” to give his personal opinion on the possibility of a miracle, and said he was compelled to back Malone’s decision.
Sanfilippo pressed him as to why he wouldn’t push for an inquiry, why he wouldn’t even entertain the possibility that a miracle may have occurred.
“Why would you take that chance?” she asked.
“Christ was no longer present,” Grosz claimed, saying the host had already dissolved. Photos show, however, that the sacred host had not dissolved.
Grosz refused to even look at the photographs.
Grosz attributed the final decision to Malone.Tweet
Sanfilippo hopes other Catholics will contact the Buffalo chancery, as she did, to call Malone and Grosz to account for depriving their flock of what may have been a tremendous, sorely needed grace. In the meantime, she and others in her group are working to spread word of the events of the past two weeks.
“All Catholics in the diocese need to know this happened,” she said.
Read more here:
https://www.churchmilitant.com/news/article/buffalo-bishops-refuse-to-investigate-possible-eucharistic-miracle