According to Catholicism, why are there so few miraculous healings of amputees, if any?
This question is inspired from another post on this site: What are Christian apologetics refutations of the objections posited by the site "Why Won't God Heal Amputees?"
I would like to have a Catholic response to why God does not heal amputees? Perhaps he has, but they are ever so few. Why?
Doubt I will get a canonical answer for this, but a well researched response would be greatly appreciated.
According to Catholicism, why are there so few miraculous healings of amputees, if any?
Thoughtout the history of the Church, there have been miracles of physical healing. Some are more spectacular than others, but they happen nevertheless every year.
For every beatification or canonization a miracle must be approved by Rome to advance to the beatification or canonization of an individual. Even outside this process, a miracle may happen, usually at the site of some pilgrimage in honour of Our Lord, Our Lady or some particular saint.
An interesting point I would like to make here before going on. As far as the miracles of beatification and canonization are concerned, Rome is not obliged to publish a a decree on a specific miracle that has been accepted or rejected. In fact many of these miracles simply do not get published. The reasons can vary for a number of reasons. The most common one is that the recipient of this grace prefers to remain anonymous.
Some years ago, I was a good friend of someone who was well acquainted with the beatification process of the now St. Claudine Thévenet. It came to pass, that the a miracle for her beatification was refused by Pope John Paul II. This immensely confused me, because it involved the restitution of a little girl’s legs which had to be amputated due to a terrible accident. Her mother did a novena to the then Venerable Claudine Thévenet. At the end of the novena, the the legs of the little girl were restored to her.
Pope St. John Paul II refused to accept this miracle because the family involved lived in a communist country and the pope feared that in publishing such information the family would have been in mortal danger from the civil authorities. Pope John Paul II stated that if the Venerable Claudine could obtain such a grace from God, she would provide another miracle soon. She did.
Then there is the restoration of the amputated leg of Miguel Pellicer in 1640.
The Miracle of Calanda is an event that allegedly took place in Calanda, Spain in 1640, according to 17th century documents. The documents state that a young farmer's leg was restored to him after having been amputated two and a half years earlier. This event is described in detail in the book Il Miracolo by Vittorio Messori.
Background as claimed by believers
At the end of July 1637, Miguel Pellicer (1617–1647), a 20-year-old man from Calanda in Aragon was working as an agricultural labourer at Castellón, 60 km from Valencia, on his uncle's farm. While steering a cart by riding one of the mules that was pulling it, Miguel fell off, probably because he had fallen asleep. The cartwheel passed over his right leg, breaking the tibia. He received initial treatment at Castellón, then was admitted to the hospital of Valencia, where he stayed for five days. He then decided to leave for Zaragoza in order to receive treatment in the hospital dedicated to Our Lady of the Pillar to whom he had great devotion. The 300 kilometre journey took him some 50 days.
On his arrival, the leg was in an advanced state of gangrene, leaving no other choice but to amputate it. In their testimony, the doctors described the leg as "very phlegmonous and gangrenous," to the point of appearing "black." In mid-October two master surgeons, Juan de Estanga and Diego Millaruelo, carried out the operation. The leg was cut "four fingers below the knee." Although they had made the patient drowsy with alcoholic and drugged drinks, as was the practice at the time, Miguel suffered excruciating pain: "In his torment," the witnesses would later say, "the young man called upon the Virgin of the Pillar, unceasingly and with great fervour." The leg was then buried, as was customary at the time, in a special part of the hospital's cemetery. The stub was subsequently cauterized with fire.
Restoration of Pellicer's legs
According to Messori, at about ten o'clock in the evening of 29 March 1640, Pellicer laid himself to rest. Because his bed was occupied by a soldier of a garrison that stayed at Calanda over night, he went to sleep on a provisional bed in his parents' room. Between half past ten and eleven o'clock, his mother entered the room and saw two feet appearing from below the cloak that covered her son. Thinking that Miguel Juan and the soldier must have changed places, she called her husband to resolve the misunderstanding. But while removing the cloak, husband and wife, were dumbstruck, as they realized that this was indeed their own son. They shook him and shouted at him to wake him up. Some minutes passed until Miguel Juan woke up from a deep sleep. He told them that he had dreamt of being within the Sanctuary of Our Lady of the Pillar and rubbing his leg with the holy oil, as he had done so often. Soon all three agreed that the restoration of the leg was due to the intercession of the Virgin of the Pillar.
News of the event immediately spread through Calanda. The following morning the local judge, assisted by two surgeons, examined Pellicer and set up a report which he immediately sent to his superiors. On April 1, Palm Sunday, Don Marco Seguer, parish priest of Mazaleón, a village fifty kilometres away, went to the place of the event, accompanied by the royal notary Miguel Andréu, who set up a certificate to express the testimony, confirmed by oath, of ten persons. - Miracle of Calanda
Miracles of restoration of limbs of amputated limbs is rare. Just like miracles by saints raising the dead. Nevertheless they do occasionally happen.
The reason for this rarity of these particular form of miracles rests with God. But we may have a few clues here and there.
God has placed in the world enough proofs so that those who chose to believe in his Son may do so. While at the same time there is just a lack of proofs in the world that those who chose not to believe in Christ will do so. God is keeping everything in perfect harmony by not producing an extraordinary number of wonderful and awe making miracles.
Sister Lúcia de Jesus Rosa dos Santos, OCD, the eldest of the seers of the great events at Fátima in 1917 was once asked why God does not perform many miracles (Miracle of the Sun)? Her response was very enlightening: ”God is leery of man”.
Strange that the site ”Why Won't God Heal Amputees?” focuses uniquely on amputees. Actually, the whole point of the question is on that site is crafted as an excuse for not obeying Him. Our Lord himself healed a blind man, who had been blind from birth; yet Jesus healed him. This had never been done in the history of the world. Yet Jesus did it. “From the beginning of the world it hath not been heard, that any man hath opened the eyes of one born blind. Unless this man were of God, he could not do any thing.” (John 9:32-33) Jesus could have chosen an amputee over a blind man, but he did not!