US toddler’s miraculous survival after prayers to George Pell

The recovery of a boy who stopped breathing for 52 minutes after ­falling into a swimming pool is being credited by senior Catholic clergy to the intercession of the late cardinal.

Vincent, left, who survived 52 minutes without breathing; late cardinal George Pell at the White Mass in Phoenix.

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The miraculous recovery of an American baby boy who stopped breathing for 52 minutes after ­falling into a swimming pool is being credited by senior Catholic clergy to the intercession of the late cardinal George Pell.

In a speech at Campion College near Parramatta on Wednesday night, Cardinal Pell’s successor as Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher, said he received a report last week about a baby, Vincent, who had just been discharged from hospital in Phoenix, Arizona.

“He’s 18 months old and fell into a swimming pool,’’ Archbishop Fisher told the gathering. “He stopped breathing for 52 minutes. His parents prayed for the ­intercession of Cardinal Pell.

“The boy survived and came off life support free of any damage to brain or lungs or heart. He’s fine now and his doctors are calling it a miracle.’’

Vincent spent about 10 days in hospital and was discharged a few days ago.

His mother’s brother, a ­Catholic priest, contacted his friend, Father Joseph Hamilton, the Rector of Domus Australia in Rome and Pell’s former secretary, asking for prayers during his ­recovery.

Archbishop of Sydney Anthony Fisher. Picture: Nikki Short

From Rome, Father Hamilton told The Australian on Thursday that the boy’s parents had prayed for the late cardinal to intercede for their son because they were ­impressed when they met him in Phoenix in December 2021.

Pell was in the US on a book tour promoting his three-volume Prison Journal, which he handwrote during his 404-day imprisonment, largely in solitary confinement.

“He said the White Mass for medical professionals in Phoenix,’’ Father Hamilton said.

The Catholic News Service ­reported that Pell told his audience that his ordeal had enabled him to understand suffering as a redemptive process that allowed people to identify closely with Christ.

“All this only makes sense if we accept in faith that suffering can be turned to a good purpose when united with Jesus’ suffering and death,” Cardinal Pell said in ­Phoenix.

“It is through his suffering and death while a powerless victim that the Lord redeemed us; ­released the grace so that our sins and the worst crimes could be forgiven.”

Pell’s fight against Vatican ­incompetence and financial corruption when he was prefect for the economy and his trial and ­conviction on charges of historic child sexual abuse in Melbourne’s St Patrick’s Cathedral, that were overturned unanimously by the High Court, sparked major ­interest in the US. He had a big ­following among Catholics in ­parishes and many US cardinals, ­bishops and priests.

Vincent’s recovery could be cited in the future as one of two miracles required for Pell’s canonisation. Picture: Getty Images

Archbishop Fisher was speaking at the Australian launch of a new biography – George Cardinal Pell, Pax Invictis, published by ­Ignatius Press.

If the boy’s recovery were to be cited in future as one of the two miracles necessary for canonisation in the Catholic Church, that process would not normally start until after January 2028.

Consideration for canonisation normally begins at least five years after the subject’s death.

Cardinal Pell died in Rome on January 19, 2023, when he suffered a heart attack in Salvator Mundi hospital after hip-replacement surgery.

The long, complex process often takes decades or centuries.

However the late Mother Teresa died in September 1997 and was declared a saint in 2016, while the late Pope John Paul II died in April 2005 and was canonised in 2014.

Australia’s first saint, Mary of the Cross MacKillop, founder of the sisters of St Joseph, died in ­August 1909 and was declared a saint by Pope Benedict in October 2010.

The Dicastery for the Causes of Saints closely scrutinises all ­candidates nominated for beatification and sainthood, assessing their lives for “heroic virtue’’.

It also assesses any miracles ­attributed to them, drawing on the expertise of several members of a team of 60 doctors and medical specialists.

Tess Livingstone is the author of George Cardinal Pell, Pax Invictis, published by Ignatius Press