CHARLOTTE — After suffering with chronic pain and debilitating numbness in her legs for five years, Megan Bean emerged from the baths in Lourdes, France, May 3, 2013, pain-free and able to walk. She received what she calls an “instantaneous physical healing” and thanked God. However, her joy was tempered with concern for the other sick pilgrims and their families.
“You see so much suffering in Lourdes, and it is very, very difficult, especially seeing the children,” Bean said. “I was struggling with the question: Do I put my wheelchair and cane away here in Lourdes, or do I wait until I get back home?”
“It was a struggle for me because, as you walk through the hotel and (word of her healing) is getting around, people are looking your way,” she said. “At least that is how I felt; what do I do?”
Bean said it was the parents of the sick children on pilgrimage with her who encouraged her not to hide her healing.
“These parents asked me to tell them what had been the matter with me and to what degree,” Bean said. “When I started to cry, they said, ‘You can’t just go home and hide in your house because, if we were wavering at all in our faith, we’re not anymore. We saw you being carried off of a plane and then we saw you get out of your cart and walk. Even if we didn’t believe in anything, we know that.’”
“Whenever I’m asked to speak, I think of the children and those parents,” Bean said.
Bean shared her remarkable story, “Journey from Suffering to Miraculous Healing in Lourdes, France,” Sept. 22 with parishioners of St. Thomas Aquinas Church in Charlotte, where her son, Father Matthew Bean, serves as parochial vicar.
Father Bean introduced his mother and offered prayers to open and close the presentation, which included a photo slideshow of Bean’s trip, questions and answers, and distribution of holy water from Lourdes.
Each year, millions of pilgrims visit the shrine to Our Lady of Lourdes where the Blessed Virgin Mary appeared 18 times to 14-year-old Bernadette Soubirous in 1858. Thousands of physical and spiritual healings have been attributed to the water that springs forth at the site. The Church recognizes 70 of those healings as miracles.
In 2013, Bean was one of 300 Malades (“sick person” in French) who traveled from the eastern United States to Lourdes with the Order of Malta, an international lay religious order dedicated to protecting the Catholic faith and serving the poor and sick. They joined thousands of Malades and volunteers from around the world for a week of prayer and reflection, which included visits to the baths, candlelit processions, recitation of the rosary in many languages, Mass and Stations of the Cross.
Bean said the experience profoundly changed her spiritually, as well as physically.
“I’m not the same person who went to Lourdes, and I’m not talking physically,” she said. “There’s something about Lourdes that changes you.”
Healed in Lourdes - Megan Bean's story from Peter Scudner on Vimeo.
“When you are in Lourdes, you can truly feel the presence of the Blessed Mother – she’s there with you,” Bean said.
A misdiagnosis
Bean’s physical problems began on a Monday in March of 2008, when she felt severe pain in her left leg, she said. Her regular physician was not available but referred her to a colleague who examined her and said her symptoms “were in my head,” Bean said.
By Thursday of that week, however, Bean developed chest pain and shortness of breath. She returned to that same doctor who again told her he found nothing wrong.
Bean said she knew differently and drove herself to the hospital emergency room where she was diagnosed with a massive blood clot in the bend of her left leg and multiple, life-threatening clots in her lungs. She was placed on blood-thinning medication and admitted to the hospital.
Bean spent more than six weeks in the hospital – including two weeks in neurological intensive care – as effects and complications from her treatment led to new, serious health problems, she said.
“I was misdiagnosed, and my case was not handled properly,” Bean said.
She suffered a bleed into her hip flexor, a spinal cord compression, and a head injury from a fall, she said. Severe nerve damage left her in chronic pain and with numbness in her legs, particularly her left leg, and her feet. She had damage to an artery in her heart and lung issues. Her doctors prescribed 13 different medications and intensive physical therapy.
Bean returned home to face a life very different from what she had known.
“I went from being very active to being wheelchair, walker and scooter-bound,” she said.
Because she could not take blood thinners and was at risk for clots, her doctors forbade her to take long car or plane rides. Confined to living on the first floor of her house, she relied on her family to care for her.
Despite her trials, Bean tried to make the best of her situation. “I had a cane for every holiday and season,” she joked.
She remained strong in her Catholic faith and devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. She attended Mass and a prayer group at her church. A lift installed in her van enabled Bean to drive short distances on occasion.
Over time, Bean’s health worsened. Because of her immobility, her leg muscles atrophied and she gained more than 60 pounds. At one point she needed a machine to help her breathe, and she developed bladder control issues.
“I remember a point in my five-year illness when my neurologist said, ‘Well, you are done with physical therapy.’ And I said, ‘What do you mean? I’m not walking yet,’” Bean described. “He said, ‘We’ve rehabbed you as much as we can, and this is what you’re left with.’”
Hope for Healing
A friend from Bean’s home parish of St. Joseph Church in Richmond, Va., first told Bean about the Order of Malta pilgrimage in 2011 and encouraged her to apply. Bean quickly dismissed the idea, believing she would not be accepted because of the health risks associated with the eight-hour flight.
When the friend mentioned the pilgrimage to Bean again the next year, she applied and was accepted. Although most of her doctors did not approve of Bean traveling, she was determined to go to Lourdes, she said.
“When the doctors with the Order of Malta interviewed me, they asked me if I would be disappointed if I went and was not healed,” Bean said. “For me, just to go to Lourdes and be where the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette and to be able to pray for peace in my heart for how I was left physically, that would be my miracle.”
Warmth and Light
On May 3, 2013, the first day of the pilgrimage, Bean’s care team transported her by cart to the baths at the shrine. Bean said her team was concerned that the 48-degree water temperature might send her nerves into shock, and they offered her the option of having the water simply dribbled on her. Bean insisted that she wanted to be immersed.
Bean prayed and kissed the statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary at the entrance to the baths, just before the volunteers led her into the frigid water up to her neck.
“Immediately there was a great brightness, and I couldn’t see the statue right in front of me that I had just kissed,” Bean recalled. “I felt such a warmth through my body, like I was being held. And I regained full function right there in the baths!”
“My foot felt funny and I didn’t realize that was the way it was supposed to feel,” she said. “I hadn’t felt it in so long. And my pain was gone.”
Bean said she knew she was healed and wanted to walk immediately, but her care team insisted she remain in her wheelchair. Her husband Pat also initially feared for her safety.
But healing was visibly apparent. She regained strength in her legs. The atrophy corrected, and the swelling dissipated. She eventually stopped all of her medications.
Bean entered the baths twice more during the pilgrimage – the third time to thank God for her healing – and she experienced the same warmth and brightness each time, she said.
Before Bean left Lourdes, officials filed paperwork to begin the investigation into her healing to determine if it will be considered a miracle by the Church. The process could take up to 15 or 20 years, Bean said.
Since her healing in 2013, Bean has returned to Lourdes three times to care for the sick with the Order of Malta and is now a member of the order. She finds it difficult to leave what has become for her a very special place, she said.
“People ask me, ‘Are there miracles on every trip?’ and I tell them I don’t know,” Bean said. “But I encourage everyone to go. Everyone is touched in some way.”
— Dina DeFabo Wilson, Correspondent
More online
Video: Watch Megan Bean's personal journey to Lourdes and her story of healing.
At www.lourdes-france.org: Learn more about the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes
At www.orderofmaltafederal.org: Read more about the Order of Malta Federal Association
CHARLOTTE — A ministry devoted to caring for parents who have received a “poor prenatal diagnosis” needs help to keep its mission alive.
Be Not Afraid began as a parish ministry in the Diocese of Charlotte in 2009 and has grown into a private non-profit organization that has assisted parents in 25 states. BNA has welcomed 142 babies, delivered despite challenging circumstances. They provide hospice support before and after a birth as well as comprehensive accompaniment to the parents, who have often been told by doctors to abort their unborn children rather than carry them to term because of the severe medical or genetic defects they have.
“All life is sacred and every child is a blessing,” says BNA co-founder Tracy Winsor, who with co-founder Sandy Buck developed a model of care for parents that respects the dignity of the unborn child and the needs and wishes of parents. “We offer parents an option other than abortion – to carry to term with comprehensive support that prepares them to welcome the baby God is sending.”
Volunteers themselves have experienced what these parents are going through – a diagnosis that their child probably will not survive once they are born.
Recognized by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and the National Catholic Bioethics Center, BNA’s model has been replicated in several other dioceses and BNA has supported parents in numerous states. In the past two years, they have also received calls for help from parents in other countries.
“This year we have supported parents not only in North Carolina, but also in Indiana, Iowa, California, Texas, Arizona, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Massachusetts, Wisconsin and Idaho,” Winsor notes. “This month we may be supporting six families carrying to term. We are also providing outreach for our families who have experienced a loss over the last 12 months, as well as those who have surviving babies. There are more than 20 of those families month to month.”
The ministry has been funded by parish baby bottle drives, in which people fill up new, empty baby bottles with loose change, as well as by the Supreme Council of the Knights of Columbus and memorial donations. But funding has not been steady, Winsor says, not enough to meet the needs of the families they serve. BNA’s only ongoing parish support comes Our Lady of Grace Church in the Diocese of Charleston, S.C., which includes BNA in its weekly tithing collections.
“Our biggest challenge is that we do not have a source of annual ongoing funding upon which we can build the rest of our budget. We need about $25,000 annually to ensure that the ministry can continue to operate,” she explains.
While the ministry is grounded in Catholic teaching, it serves families of any faith background.
“If it was not for Be Not Afraid, I wouldn’t have gotten through such an experience,” says April McLean, mom to Amari, who was prenatally diagnosed with Trisomy 18. Trisomy 18, also known as Edwards syndrome, causes severe developmental delays due to an extra chromosome. There is no treatment for the condition, and most babies are either stillborn or die within the first year of life.
BNA “made sure I was comfortable, and didn’t let me go through anything alone, and was there for me anytime I had questions or felt down,” McLean says.
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
For more
At www.benotafraid.net: Learn more about Be Not Afraid and how to donate to the ministry
CHARLOTTE — The Catholic Pro-Life Action Network (C-PLAN) is expanding beyond Charlotte, forming a chapter in the Triad region to coordinate pro-life efforts among parishes.
C-PLAN was established in 2015 by parish Respect Life coordinators and pro-life leaders from around Charlotte to organize pro-life activities in the area. It has arranged a prayer rally in front of Charlotte’s Planned Parenthood facility, led numerous pro-life marches and prayer vigils in front of the city’s abortion mills, sponsored pro-life lectures, and launched the Vigil of the Two Hearts, a First Friday/Saturday devotion held at St. Patrick Cathedral.
Guided by the Charlotte C-PLAN group, Respect Life leaders in the Triad area, which covers Winston-Salem, Greensboro, High Point and surrounding areas, have been meeting since last summer to mobilize Triad Catholics and, through collaboration among parishes, boost local pro-life efforts. Triad Catholics already have pitched in on a major effort: hosting the Diocese of Charlotte’s Respect Life Conference Sept. 29 in Kernersville.
“I am very excited about helping to establish a strong pro-life group in the Triad,” said Samantha Hogan, a member of St. Leo the Great Parish in Winston-Salem. “We are just in the baby steps, but I feel confident that with enough people, advertising and activities, C-PLAN of the Triad could create momentum that helps us increase the number of Catholics participating in pro-life work here.”
Sue Perez, Respect Life coordinator at St. Paul the Apostle Parish in Greensboro, is one of the collaborators in this effort. “One goal of forming this regional pro-life group in the Triad is to be a support for one another already active in building a culture of life,” she said. “Another goal is to encourage through education and activities the expansion of awareness and opportunities to participate in building a culture of life.”
“John Paul II called for the full mobilization of all Catholic resources toward the cause of protecting the unborn, and I’m excited to see this beginning to happen in the Triad,” said Jessica Grabowski, Respect Life program director for Catholic Charities Diocese of Charlotte. “There is a lot of interest and enthusiasm among the parish Respect Life leaders in the Triad area, so I’m hopeful this will blossom.”
The Triad C-PLAN group meets at Bishop McGuinness High School on the second Monday of each month. For more information, email Sue Perez at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
— Mike FitzGerald, correspondent. Editor’s note: Mike FitzGerald is a correspondent for the Catholic News Herald and one of the leaders of C-PLAN Charlotte.
CHARLOTTE — “Chosen and Precious in God’s Sight” was the theme for MiraVia’s annual banquet Oct. 18. Shawn Carney, president of the pro-life organization 40 Days For Life, served as keynote speaker.
Nearly 900 supporters of MiraVia gathered at the Charlotte Convention Center’s Crown Ballroom to raise money and hear the good news about the outreach ministry which helped more than 615 young mothers and children last year.
Benedictine Abbot Placid Solari of Belmont Abbey, Monsignor Mauricio West, chancellor and vicar general of the Diocese of Charlotte, and Father Christopher Roux, rector of St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, offered prayers at the 24th annual banquet.
MiraVia, which began as Room At The Inn in 1994, helps abortion-vulnerable women choose life and build independent, healthy lives for themselves and their children. MiraVia offers life skills classes, material assistance and moral support to the women who come to them for help – free of charge. Since its founding, MiraVia has helped 8,072 women and their children at its outreach facility in Charlotte.
Debbie Capen, MiraVia’s executive director shared the good news of how donations to the outreach ministry helped women and children this year.
She noted that donors contributed more than 32,392 diapers, 1,232 bags of clothing and 4,092 pounds of food over the past year to MiraVia moms and their babies. Volunteers offered 841 hours of service to assist the mothers and their children at both of MiraVia’s facilities last year.
Capen also shared that eight mothers and their babies are being served by MiraVia through their residential facility for college student mothers on the campus of Belmont Abbey College in Belmont.
Last year, MiraVia provided those moms 73 hours of parenting and life-skill instruction and 248 hours of one-on-one case management and counseling.
“In that same time, our residents spent a whopping 2,250 hours in a college classroom,” she said. “Just think, these young students thought they would have to choose somehow between continuing their pregnancy or getting an education. Instead, the eight mothers we have in the residence now have not skipped a beat toward their degrees.”
Capen also mentioned that the residential facility is at capacity right now due to staffing regulations. MiraVia hopes to raise an additional $80,000 annually to fund another 24/7 staff position so that up to 15 mothers can live there at a time.
“This program might not have succeeded as well in another location,” said Susan Rodriguez, the new president of MiraVia’s board of directors.
“These brave young student mothers might not have been as welcomed elsewhere. Many of these infants might have been denied the gift of life under any other circumstances. But Abbot Placid, the monks of Belmont Abbey, Dr. William Thierfelder and the faculty and staff of Belmont Abbey College chose to make MiraVia a part of the Abbey family. For them, each MiraVia mother and each infant is chosen and precious in God’s sight.”
The 2018 Outstanding Service Award was presented to Emily Raines, who has volunteered for two years at the residential facility. A recent newlywed and assistant tennis coach at Belmont Abbey College, Raines has given tirelessly of her time and is described as being joyful, caring, dependable and encouraging to the moms and staff of MiraVia.
A special moment during the banquet was the singing of the National Anthem by MiraVia volunteer Maria Swanson. Before singing she remarked about the love one feels when they walk through the door of MiraVia, why everyone had gathered for the evening and the appropriateness of singing the National Anthem together at the event.
“For what are our nation’s hopes and dreams and battles for, if not for the children? And what are MiraVia’s hopes and dreams and battles for, if not for the children?”
— SueAnn Howell, Senior reporter
Learn more
At www.mira-via.org: Get more information about how to volunteer or donate to MiraVia