The Miracle Detective: An Investigation of Holy Visions

Reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary run from the sublime (At Fatima to three Portuguese children in a pasture) to the silly (In Florida to a jewelry designer on a grilled cheese sandwich). It was news reports of a Boardman, OR Marian apparition in the winter of 1994 skewing toward the silly which first piqued Portland author Randall Sullivan's interest and sent him on a ten year journey that resulted in The Miracle Detective: An Investigative Reporter Sets Out to Examine How the Catholic Church Investigates Holy Visions and Discovers His Own Faith. Sullivan is an investigative journalist and contributing editor at Rolling Stone magazine specializing in non-rock and roll feature stories often focusing on crime or offbeat themes with a mysterious slant. In 1994, Sullivan was neither a Catholic nor a believer in the divine but he did have the open mind of a journalist. As Sullivan sets the stage early in the book, it was the sincerity of the purported witnesses to a glowing image of the Virgin Mary in an Eastern Oregon trailer park and the fact that the incident was "under investigation" by the Diocese of Baker that induced him to look into how reported miracles were investigated by the Catholic Church. Dubbing these Church investigators "Miracle Detectives" Sullivan writes that with virtually no firsthand knowledge of the Catholic Church he naively intended to produce an account detailing the official Church process for authenticating miracles focusing on the current apparitions of the Medjugorje seers. Armed with Vatican and Medjugorje introductions supplied by Father Milan Mikulich from St. Birgitta's Parish in Portland and Father Steve Sunborg of the Oregon Curia, Sullivan began his research in Rome and Bosnia. On a superficial level, Sullivan accomplished what he set out to do. The Miracle Detective does feature interesting and insightful explanations and commentary on the Church's rigorous process for looking into reported miraculous incidents. Sullivan interviewed many clerics including an Eastern Oregon parish priest, a Postulator from the Sacred Congregation of the Causes for Saints at the Vatican and others including Father Benedict Groeschel C.F.R.. Additionally, Sullivan makes a welcome contribution to the body of Medjugorje-themed literature by providing a sober and thorough review of the numerous medical and psychological studies conducted on the six seers from 1981 to the present and objectively reviews the divisive reactions to the reported apparitions among world Catholics and Yugoslav government officials alike. Also, almost unique in writing on the subject, Sullivan masterfully frames the spiritual story of Medjugorje within the broader context of Balkan history from the pagan times of late antiquity through the medieval clash between Christianity and Islam, Communism and perhaps most importantly the Bosnian war of the 1990's. Although the Church's study of events in Medjugorje was intended to be the focus of the book,

Randall Sullivan spent eight years researching and examining the miraculous apparitions at Boardman Oregon, Scottsdale Arizona and Medjugorje in Bosnia. The results is one of the best books on the phenomenon of miraculous apparitions ever to be written. Although he starts locally with Boardman, he spends most of his time in Medjugorje and Rome. Medjugorje is undeniably the most important miraculous appearance of our time and is often compared to those at Lourdes and Fatima. Sullivan provides wonderfully balanced reporting, while at the same time he is open enough to show how his interviews have personally influenced him. He does a wonderful job of presenting the many points of view on these events, yet is always reaching for the objective truth behind the presentations of the seers, the Church, the theologians, the believers, and the scientists. My favorite chapter comes towards the end of the book when he interviews Father Benedict Groeschel. He quotes Groeschel as saying: "If you no more than dismiss these things, you're simple an obscurantist. If you mindlessly embrace them, you're just a dope. we have to resist the obsessive-compulsive demand for a clear, definitive answer to these questions. This is a field for people who don't have to have it all figured out, who don't need it cast in black and white. There's a lotta gray mist around this stuff, and you have to be prepared to deal with that. Once in a while a bright, shining lightcomes through, and we should be grateful for it. Because the rest of the time we have to feel our way through the twilight." If you have an open mind, I recommend this book. However, if you come to it to either prove or disprove a preconceived idea, you will probably feel upset with the author's approach.

This book will mean different things to different people, depending on what you see as the primary source of ultimate truth. To a scientist, this might be a case study in group psychology: the incredible lengths to which the human mind can go in its search for meaning and order. To a spiritual person, this might be part-inspirational story, part-cautionary tale, detailing the continuing presence of messengers of the Almighty (and/or the Evil One) in a world that has largely forgotten them both. Much like the author, I feel cursed and gifted with the ability to approach the question of miraculous events (and life in general) from both directions simultaneously. My Catholic upbringing makes me unusually susceptible to supernatural persuasion, while my throughly modern lifestyle often conflicts with what I once considered dogma. And if you're wondering what all of that has to do with a book review, know that it is impossible to approach a book like this without noting, analyzing, and calling into question one's own biases and assumptions.I found the book to be well-written and profoundly compelling. It is only secondarily about supernatural events, which might surprise you after reading the subtitle: "An Investigation of Holy Visions." The real meat of this book lies in the author's own journey: physical, emotional, and spiritual, throughout the book's research. It might be more aptly subtitled "One Man's Investigation of Himself via Holy Visions." The author goes into the undertaking obviously primed for the experiences he is about to have, but that makes the reality as he perceives and relays it no less compelling. While he has far too great of a personal stake in this matter to be capable of an ostensibly objective analysis, he does an admirable job of making that clear to the reader; truly "baring his soul." And in the end, we are surprised and yet strangely comforted that the power and wonder of what he experiences makes his life no less a walk of faith than it was at the outset.This book confirmed a couple of key points for me about my own truth. 1) Life really is stranger than I *can* imagine, and 2) Life requires faith, and faith requires that we choose to believe.

If you have faith, are searching for faith, or have ever struggled with your faith this book is for you! I read a lot of spiritual/religious books (everything from Surya Das to Elaine Pagels)and this one has sparked more conversations with my friends than any in a long time. Everyone I know who's read it, loves this book -- mainline Protestants, Catholics, lapsed Catholics and spiritual seekers alike. If you're none of the above but care about spiritual issues, you'll like MIRACLE DETECTIVE, too.Without plot-spoiling, Randall not only examines the nature of miracles and faith, but has direct encounters with good and evil (apparitions?) himself. One was so terrifying spiritually that after reading it my friend lay in bed awake all night with her reading glasses and bedside lamp on.If you like accounts of Marian apparitions this has the goods, but don't be fooled you don't have to be into them at all to love this book. More than anything this book tells of an amazing spiritual journey that makes you think about your own relationship with belief. It's a great read (very interesting and well-written, but not at all academic like a lot of religion books)!