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LOS ANGELES () — A 38-year-old Baldwin Park priest said he experienced what the Catholic Church is calling a miraculous recovery from a basketball injury.
I just never thought about my injury again.
Father Juan Manuel Gutierrez
On Monday, children and adults of a shared faith listened a story they typically only read about in biblical scriptures. One of the main characters was Father Juan Manuel Gutierrez.
In 2017, Gutierrez, who was a seminarian at the time, suffered an ankle injury while playing basketball at a gym.
“Initially, the ER doctors told me that what I likely had was a pulled muscle,” he said during a news conference at his church.
But Gutierrez said an MRI revealed a complete tear of his Achilles tendon, and surgery was recommended.
That’s when he turned to prayer.
Gutierrez said he didn’t ask for healing but instead asked for help. He decided to do a “novena,” a set of nine prayers offered for nine consecutive days — and to offer the prayers to Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati.
Frassati was born in Turin, Italy, in the early 20th century. He known as an outdoorsman and a mountain climber who devoted himself to the poor, beatified in 1990.
Gutierrez said Frassati’s intercession led to a miraculous healing.
“I was praying, and I started to feel a sensation of heat around the area of my injury,” he said. “From that day on, I just never thought about my injury again.”
That was followed by confirmation from a surgeon that the tear was not present.
“Knowing that I was a seminarian, someone studying to become a priest, he told me, ‘You must have somebody up there looking after you,'” recalled Gutierrez.
This eventually prompted an investigation by the Vatican. Los Angeles Archbishop José H. Gomez authorized Monsignor Robert Sarno, an American priest who had recently retired after nearly 40 years at the Vatican’s Dicastery of the Causes of the Saints, to lead the investigation of Gutierrez’s story.
Two L.A. priests were appointed to help with the judicial process, and in the fall of 2023, Sarno returned to St. John’s to interview witnesses and gather evidence, including doctor’s notes, the initial MRI scan and other documents.
“Everything was sent to the dicastery in Rome, where it was examined, first by the medical board to make sure that the case was solid in terms of there was no scientific explanation, and then by the theological consultants,” explained Sarno.
In November, Pope Francis recognized this as a miraculous healing.
“Of course, ‘miracle’ is a word that gets overused in our culture, and it’s not well understood, but the scriptures tell us that Jesus worked miracles on Earth,'” said Gomez.
Frassati will be canonized next Aug. 3 during the 2025 Jubilee Year celebration for young people.
His niece Wanda Gawronska attended Monday’s gathering from Italy.
“Giorgio will be canonized next year, and it’s also the 100-year anniversary of his death,” she said.
City News Service, Inc. contributed to this report.
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