By Matters India Reporter

Kochi, October 15, 2019: A doctor in Kerala has questioned the Catholic Church’s dependence on miracles to declare someone a saint.

Sulphi Noohu, secretary of the Kerala unit of the Indian Medical Association told CNN News 18 on October 16 that superstition should not be attached to the Church’s canonization process.

The Church must avoid unscientific things that have no rationale, while declaring someone a saint and advised a change in the current canonization process.

The doctor made the remarks a day after Pope Francis canonized Mariam Thresia, a Kerala nun, at the Vatican City on October 13.

“We are not against beliefs. We respect all religious sentiments. What we are saying his we need evidence that somebody’s illness was cured by some kind of medical procedure or whatever thing. So if somebody claims that I have cured somebody’s illness by doing something, that is what we are saying. We are not against any beliefs,” he added.

The doctor says even while nobody is against beliefs, there must be some evidence of the basis of which an illness has been cured.

Asked about a Facebook post he had allegedly written saying that he too deserved to be declared a saint as he had also cured several patients, Noohu said that it was just a satire written on social media in February 2019 and has nothing to do with the latest sainthood.

He went on to say that not only him, but hundreds of thousands of doctors treat patients daily. Referring to nuns and priests, he observed that one should appreciate the work done by them.

Mariam Thresia, founder of the Congregation of the Holy Family, was declared as a saint along with four others. She was beatified on April 9, 2000. She died on June 8, 1986, at the age of 50