Blessed Seelos update

Last May I posted a blog about a solid cure of Mary Ellen Heibel attributed to Blessed Fr. Francis Xavier Seelos. Last night our most prominent local TV news outlet ran a feature story on her cure. Because the saintly priest lived his final years in New Orleans and the already approved cure that led to his beatification is that of a local woman, Angela Boudreaux, interest in Seelos here remains strong. The story is listed below. Note that not long after this story was filmed, Mary Ellen died of pneumonia. Remarkably, tests run on her body confirmed that she died without any trace of the cancer she was cured from through Seelos' intercession.

Cancer patient's prayers answered

by Angela Hill / Eyewitness News


NEW ORLEANS – Many might believe Mary Ellen Heibel's whole life had been a medical miracle.

At 21 she had her gallbladder removed. At 47 a kidney transplant. In her 60s, she almost died when her colon exploded and she got sepsis and went into a coma.

Yet with each medical catastrophe she survived, and she says got closer to God.

"I came to the conclusion that if I am going to die, I’m going to die by myself, and I better do something about my religion and praying,” Heibel said.

And she did that as a parishioner at St Mary's Church in Annapolis, built in the 1850s and where a much-loved Redemptorist priest once served as pastor – Father Francis Seelos.

It would be to him that Heibel would pray during her biggest medical challenge.

“I couldn’t swallow my food. My food would get stuck halfway down. I would have to cough it up,” Heibel said.

It was esophageal cancer, and Heibel was almost immediately put in surgery while wearing a relic of Father Seelos around her neck.

“They take part of your stomach out and all of your esophagus out, and they take your stomach -- what’s left of it -- and pull it up out of your throat,” she said.

But the doctors at Walter Reed gave her hope.

“They told me I was cancer free. They told me all the lymph nodes were cancer free, and so I had no more cancer,” Heibel said.

That was January 2003. By the end of the year, things changed.

“I fainted and went back to Walter Reed, and they said get another CAT scan and see what's wrong,” Heibel said.

What they found was one lymph node near the aorta filled with cancer – cancer that would spread within months.

“It spread to my liver, my lungs – two tumors in both lungs, my back and my sternum.”

The doctors at Walter Reed said they could do no more.

“When the doctor told her he couldn’t do anything for her and to go home and die, she wouldn’t give up,” said Father Louis Olive.

Olive, a retired priest at St. Mary's, said Heibel began her own search for a cure, found a new doctor at Johns Hopkins and never stopped praying to Father Seelos.

“He said 'I can't save you, but I can keep you alive if you are willing to stay on this chemotherapy,” said Heibel.

She was willing, and for the next six months she went through tough chemo treatment and then asked her pastor's permission to start a novena to Seelos.

“He said fine, we'll start on Wednesday. That was the end of January, and by February 7th I had a CAT scan,” Heibel said.
Her doctor called and told her all of her tumors were gone.

“‘You are free of cancer.’ And he couldn’t believe it. He said it wasn’t what his chemo did. His chemo did not do that,” Heibel said.

Was it the prayers to Seelos, the novena started with friends, family and fellow parishioners?

“My reaction was, is this really happening? We had prayed so long to Father Seelos, and is this the real thing?” Olive said.

Seelos spent his life helping people most in need. He was beloved for his acceptance and respect for all people. When parishioners knew he was holding confession, they lined up around the church.

How fitting it is that when a statue is built to Seelos, that it isn’t of a man standing, but rather of a priest sitting, as if listening to a parishioner or a person in need.

That was the essence of this man who made an imprint where ever he went. He volunteered to come to New Orleans, knowing the need for priests to help those dying of yellow fever.

“There were people who were physically cured while he was alive through his prayers and through his blessings while he was living, and of course he tried to downplay it because he was an extremely humble man,” said Father Byron Miller. “The fact is it did happen and people gave testimony to that before they died.”

Miller is director of the Seelos Center in New Orleans at St. Mary's Assumption Church, where Seelos lived and died and where his remains are entombed. It’s where people from all over the world come to learn about him and to seek his help.

“There is something very inspiring about him in a day and age when we could use a little inspiration,” Miller said.

For Heibel there is no doubt that the prayers to Seelos healed her. It has been over four years, and every three months she is checked and declared free of cancer.

Now her story helps others. She gets calls from around the world.

“People are so desperate. They really need something, hope,” Heibel said.

Her hope is to one day come to New Orleans.

“I would love to go to the Seelos Center. I hear it is beautiful.”

Heibel will not be coming to the Seelos Center in New Orleans. One week after our interview she died of double pneumonia. There was no cancer in her body.

“We have lost a wonderful friend of the Redemptorist and a great advocate of Father Seelos,” Miller said. “She considered this a ministry to talk about him and his great, powerful powers.”

Prior to her death, Heibel and 10 others, including her doctor from Johns Hopkins, testfied before a tribunal, investigating what she calls her miracle. All of their testimonies are being transcribed and will be sent to the Vatican before Christmas.

The case for what many believe to be the second miracle of Seelos will continue to Rome. Pope Benedict XVI will ultimately decide if this gentle, loving priest should be canonized.

But for those like Mary Ellen Heibel who have been touched by this man, Francis Seelos is already a saint.

For more on the Seelos center in New Orleans and the cause for Fr. Seelos' canonization, visit www.seelos.org