Bulletin’s “miracle”

Jeers to the Manila Bulletin for a report that had its readers asking: “Wait, what?”

Last Dec. 9, the Bulletin reported that a 90-year-old man in Aklan had reportedly died but suddenly came back to life. Quoting the man’s wife, the report attributed the man’s resurrection to the family’s strong devotion to the Holy Child Jesus. (“Old man rises from the dead”, p. 9)

According to the wife, her husband stopped breathing last Dec. 1 and felt “cold and numb”. “Despondent, Rosita prayed and asked helped from Señor Santo Niño,” the Bulletin wrote in the report. A few hours later, the wife said the husband reportedly regained consciousness. She also said that her husband has been a devotee of the Holy Child Jesus since his younger years.

The report quoted the local parish priest, who could not make heads or tails of the incident. “(I)t might be a fruit of sacramental grace or of freedom regained due to forgiveness of one’s sins,” the parish priest told the Bulletin.

The report left readers asking some important—and very obvious—questions: Did the man really die? Did the family seek a doctor or go to a local hospital to check the man’s condition? Why didn’t the Bulletin get other sources to corroborate the claim, such as a doctor? If the incident was really miraculous and extraordinary in nature, why did the paper devote just a few paragraphs on it and put it in page 9?

Probably more miraculous than this incident was Bulletin’s decision to report on it without asking the obvious questions.