The Strange Case of Audrey Santo
(The Boston Phoenix,  Dec. 25 - Jan. 1, 1998)

Miracle in Worcester - A comatose teenager in Worcester is reportedly setting off an escalating series of miracles. Some see God, some see fraud. And then there's the Catholic Church, which is officially not sure - by Ellen Barry

Audrey Santo's bedroom has the intense pinkness and laciness that a 14-year-old girl might choose for herself. Adult attention has been paid to this: the curtains are lace, and the bedspread is pink, and the pillow is both pink and lacy. There are garlands of cloth flowers hanging over her; there are confectionary bows in her hair. Audrey has not spoken for 10 years, since the day she went into a coma, but her hair has grown and grown and grown, off the pillow and over the edge of the bed. Then there are elements that would not appeal to most teenagers, such as the display window through which pilgrims can peer every Wednesday afternoon, when the house opens to visitors. A few years ago, it was possible to visit on short notice. But these days, the pilgrims shuffling through the Santo residence  have spent upward of 11 months on a waiting list, which makes them better off than people who sign up today, who can't expect to get into the house until well into 1999. They mostly just look, but photographs are sometimes placed in the girl's curled fingers, and various visitors put their faces right next to her cheek and whisper particular messages for Audrey to convey to Jesus. Pilgrims find the sight tremendously affecting and, on a few isolated occasions, have overstepped their bounds. "There have been people who cut a piece of carpet off the floor in Audrey's room," says John Clote, a Catholic filmmaker who directed a 1996 documentary called Audrey's Life. "People have come in and pulled a hair out of her head. People have done very strange things." This is not -- as the Santos' next-door neighbors will freely tell you -- a part of town known for being medieval. If anything, it's a part of town known for being Jewish. Still, the residents of South Flagg Street have come to expect certain Catholic  idiosyncrasies on Wednesday afternoons, such as the line of people waiting to kiss a communion wafer said to have bled during Mass, or the people who walk in on crutches and come out healed, or Port-a-Potties set out during yearly masses for the faithful of five continents. Until a year or two ago, it was a small neighborhood miracle, known chiefly to miracle-watchers and to the unflappable residents of South Flagg Street. As word spreads, though, Audrey's case seems headed for a kind of public reckoning. For one thing -- after eight years of reported anomalies that have escalated from weeping statues to stigmata to hovering apparitions of the Virgin Mary -- the Worcester diocese has begun a rare official investigation. The Miracle of Little Audrey has become too big for the Church to ignore. It's definitely too big for the neighbors to ignore. "People can believe what they want to believe, but the neighborhood isn't zoned for this," says Renee Harrison, who lives across the street. "Sometimes I can't get out of my driveway."

Audrey Santo wandered into the swimming pool in her back yard on August 9, 1987. This is the private tragedy that launched a public phenomenon: by the time she was resuscitated, the toddler had suffered massive hypoxia -- the oxygen supply to her brain was cut off for several minutes, killing off blocks of brain cells. Doctors informed her parents she would spend the rest of her days on life-support, in a coma. They recommended that Linda Santo place her youngest daughter in an extended-care facility. Then, as now, Linda Santo had her own ideas about what was best for Audrey. She has accused UMass Medical Center of bringing on Audrey's state with a drug overdowse and then breaking both her legs in physical therapy; she also has said Audrey is not in a coma, but simply in a "non-moving, non-speaking state." She took her daughter home, where, with dedication that has consistently impressed visitors and medical personnel, the family has taken care of Audrey ever since. Audrey's mother also took her somewhere else: shortly after the accident, she flew with the child to Medjugorje, in what was then Yugoslavia, a popular pilgrimage site where the Virgin Mary is said to  have appeared periodically since 1981. It was there, Linda Santo says, that Audrey communicated directly with the Virgin Mary and agreed to take on the obscure Catholic status of a "victim soul" -- a pious individual who willingly takes on the suffering of other people, sometimes to the extent of manifesting symptoms. Audrey also went into cardiac arrest and required a medical evacuation to the United States that, Worcester magazine reported, cost $25,000. In hindsight, her mother has ascribed this crisis to Audrey's proximity to "the biggest abortion clinic in Yugoslavia." The miracles started soon after her return to Worcester. Since 1989, when nurses first spoke of an overpowering scent of roses, the reports have proliferated to include virtually every supernatural phenomenon in the Catholic repertoire: icons weeping blood; statues moving of their own accord; miraculous healing; bleeding communion wafers; the face of Jesus appearing in that blood; blood appearing spontaneously inside a tabernacle; the Virgin Mary appearing in cloud formations overhead; and, dripping down the walls of the garage, copious amounts of spontaneously appearing oil, which is collected on cotton balls and distributed in tiny Ziploc bags to the faithful, who have used it to treat things like tumors. Other reported phenomena focus more on the child's status as a victim soul -- a claim made over the last century by a handful of chronically ill women, among them Little Rose, the Stigmatized Ecstatic of Woonsocket, Rhode Island, who developed an intense local following in the 1920s and '30s. Based on observations  of Audrey's elevated heart rate, nurses say she suffers acutely between the hours of noon and three on Holy Week, when Christ is believed to have hung on the cross. Her family's "spiritual guide," the Reverend George Joyce, who heard about Audrey after he visited Medjugorje, says that she has been "crucified on her bed." In an interview for the 1997 video The Story of Little Audrey Santo: The Victim Soul Who Is Bringing People to Jesus, Linda Santo tells how, when she was visited by a woman with ovarian cancer, Audrey manifested symptoms of the illness; X-rays of Audrey's ovaries, her mother says, showed not a tumor but "a little angel." Another time, Audrey developed a vivid crimson rash; the family says she was taking on the side effects of chemotherapy for a visiting cancer patient. She is also said to have developed stigmata, in which the five wounds of the crucified Christ spontaneously appear on the body. As a result of these extraordinary events, Audrey is developing the shell of bureaucracy typical of very famous people. To speak to Audrey Santo's family, journalists must be approved by her "board of directors." (The Phoenix was rejected by this body, whose taste runs to the Catholic press, and to reporters who guarantee previews of news copy.) Her name is increasingly well known in the circle of people who follow miracles. "She's new. I think she just became popular in the last year or so," says Jim Drzymala, administrator of the "Apparitions of Jesus and Mary" Web page. Those who can't jump the line by virtue of chronic disease take what ancillary contact they can get; once a year, on the anniversary of her near-drowning, Audrey is wheeled into a local church to receive the faithful. Last year, as Audrey lay in her tiara on a stretcher, this Mass attracted upward of  5000 people -- a crowd so large, and so unexpected, that "the police could not respond  appropriately," according to city councilor Wayne Griffin. Every time the story appears, it ratchets up the level of public enthusiasm. Audrey's Life and The Story of Little Audrey Santo have become so popular that one fan recently asked Audrey's dermatologist, who appears in the video, for an autograph. Channel 7, which has run several spots on the phenomenon, has reported as many as 250 phone calls after a broadcast. And when the Boston Herald ran a story about Audrey last month, the accompanying photograph showed a plaque with a contact number for the Santo family friend and representative Mary Cormier. The story ran on a Monday. Over the next two days, according to Cormier, 700 people called that number.

The biggest sign of Audrey Santo's growing importance is the long-awaited attention from the Diocese of Worcester, which has maintained a stoic silence on the subject for eight years. That's not unusual -- in the century that brought us the Stone Mountain Pasta Jesus and the Rocking Virgin of Ballyspittle, Catholic authorities have tended to keep a safe (read: vast) distance from miracle claims. Who can blame them? Take the case of Veronica Leukin [sic ], the 1970s visionary of Bayside, New York, who had already built up a significant following when she issued a surprise message from the Virgin Mary: the sitting Pope was an impostor created by skilled plastic surgeons. So in the diocese -- quite understandably -- miracles are not a popular topic of conversation. "Every bishop dreads having one of these things happen in his diocese," says Reverend Emmanuel McCarthy, a Brockton Eastern Rite priest and a friend of the Santo family. He's familiar with the subject, since his daughter Benedicta's recovery from an overdose of Tylenol was recently accepted as a miracle by the Vatican. "It's hard to get an objective standpoint in an emotionally charged atmosphere," he says. The rigorous procedure of investigation is "negative from the point of view of the fundamentalistempiricists, and it's negative from the point of view of the believers. Either way, it's a no-win situation." But -- whether because of the pilgrim traffic or the extraordinary nature of the claims -- the Bishop of Worcester has been left with no choice. Sometime over the next few weeks, a not-yet-named commission will venture into the murky business of trying to figure out what's going on at 64 South Flagg Street. Although the Vatican has set procedures for testing claims of miraculous recovery, a requirement for canonizing new saints, there'sno protocol for testing a victim soul. ("There are those who believe she is suffering for other people," says the Reverend Stephen Pedone, who will oversee the investigation. "That's very difficult to monitor.") This will be the first time in its history that the Worcester diocese hascarried out an investigation of its own, according to Pedone, judicial vicar for the diocese. It's a tricky case, because Audrey can't speak. The vast majority of miracle claims involve pparitions, in which a visionary conveys a message to the people from Christ or the VirginMary, so investigators judge authenticity in part by whether they agree with what Jesus or theirgin seems to be saying. But in this case, whatever interpretation pilgrims walk away with is upplied by Linda Santo or by Joyce; the miracles themselves are pure supernaturalyrotechnics. Asked what the investigation will consist of, Pedone mentions medical analyses of healing claims but nothing about the rivulets of blood and oil that run down statuesthroughout the house -- and which, presumably, could be established empirically as spontaneousccurrences. Pedone, who has visited the Santo house, says he has been deeply moved by thedevotion he has witnessed there, but he is otherwise noncommital on the subject of the supernatural. He stresses the fact that miracles -- the miracles of life and faith -- are present inthe most ordinary settings. "All this bespeaks a real spiritual hunger," Pedone says. "Thereare people coming in in wheelchairs just to be able to walk by Audrey .Ê.Ê.Ê. Certainly it ismiraculous -- just the fact that people are being drawn into a deeper relationship with God -- but it shows a real hunger, a real searching. Saint Augustine wrote that God `has placed a longing in our hearts.' Well, our hearts continue to be restless."  In the meantime, when priests call the diocese to ask about Audrey, Pedone issues mild  discouragementÊ-- chiefly, he says, out of concern for the overtaxed Santo family. "We don't  encourage [the attention]" he says. "We're discouraging it, because it just creates -- I don't want to say a carnival atmosphere, a circus atmosphere -- but it's unsettling. When I was there, there was a constant flurry of activity." Although he doesn't bring this up, the commission will also investigate theologically suspect activities going on at the Santo residence. Joyce appears on a videotape administering communion wafers spattered with "sacred oil," an enhancement of the eucharist which breaks baseline Catholic rules. And by hailing Audrey as a "living saint," her supporters breach the strict Catholic protocol that will keep Mother Teresa awaiting canonization for at least five years. But even if the commission finds violations, it's clear that the Church would risk something by condemning what's going on at the Santos'. Worshipers get on their knees in a driveway on a Wednesday afternoon: the whole phenomenon is an engine of devotion. As Pedone puts it, "There are a lot of things at stake here, and one of those things is the faith of the people." This, then, is the tightrope of the contemporary miracle. Miracles occur more often than you would think; there are, at present, some 20 self-proclaimed stigmatics that researchers know of, and an infinite number of self-proclaimed visionaries, and a handful of so-called eucharistic miracles, in which communion wafers bleed spontaneously or -- in the case of one Julia Kim of Naju, South Korea -- actually turn into a tiny beating heart on someone's tongue. The much-publicized Medjugorje visions, first reported in 1981, are partly responsible for this upsurge; even within the community of miracle-watchers, the trend issometimes known as "the Medjugorje virus." To those Catholics who follow the proliferatingmiracle reports, this is a period of great revelation. "I kind of equate it to living in the time of Jesus Christ," says Jim Drzymala. "People say, `Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in the time of Jesus Christ?' Well, we're living in the same times." Others -- like Bruce Miller, an apparitions expert from Catholic University of America, in Washington, DC --  profusion of miracles. "Down in Georgia, they are forever seeing Christ's face in things," says Miller, who is not a Catholic himself. "What's the point of the face of Jesus in a tree? Everyone says, `Ooooh, the face of Jesus in a tree.' They all congregate for a while, and then they disappear. What has it accomplished?"

Little Audrey, moving into her second decade as a miracle, has accomplished this much: she's made a lot of people nervous. Cases like hers force Catholics to answer the dangerous question of what, precisely, they believe. Catholicism itself turns on a central supernatural event: at Mass, bread and wine are believed to transform physically into the body and blood of Christ. But the church is rapidly liberalizing; according to statistics repeated with great alarm and frequency by the Missouri-based Mercy Foundation, which produced Audrey's Life, 70 percent of American Catholics don't believe in the basic doctrine of  transubstantiation, which hinges onthe "real presence" of Christ in the Eucharist. (Jim Davidson, a sociology professor at Purdue University, in West Lafayette, Indiana, found otherwise: his recent survey shows that 72 percent of Indiana Catholics "agree strongly" withthe doctrine.) Miracles like Audrey's ask post-Vatican II Catholics to put their money where their mouth is. If you can't believe in a communion wafer oozing blood once, how can youbelieve that it turns to flesh many thousands of times daily?

In six or seven months, the diocese will weigh in with a brief memo, either encouraging or discouraging the recognition of God's hand in the case of Audrey Santo. Mild discouragement is common in such cases; despite the crowds drawn to Conyers, Georgia, or Emmitsburg, Maryland, or Scottsdale, Arizona, no miracle site in the United States has ever gotten the Vatican stamp of approval accorded Lourdes or La Sallette or Fatima. But then, it may not matter either way, says a pilgrimage travel agent who routinely sends Catholics to nonapproved sites such as Medjugorje. "People don't always listen," she says, speaking on the condition of anonymity. "This is what I see from many years of dealing with pilgrims. American Catholics feel freer to go contrary to what their priests might say." And despite the great exhaustion that Pedone ascribes to them, the Santo family will probably keep the door open for as long as there are pilgrims lining up in front of it. "I asked [Linda Santo] and [George Joyce], `Why you are letting me do this?'" says Clote, who filmed the documentaryAudrey's Life. "She said, `We'd like to drop the shades down and have this all for ourselves, but there's so many people out there who need it.'" The Santos need it, too. The profusion of reported supernatural phenomena nearly obscures the one miracle that hasn't happened: Audrey's recovery. In one film, Audrey's aunt confides that she thinks Audrey was chosen as a victim soul before birth, so that the backyard accident was merely one episode in a divine narrative. She recalls a child who, from the moment she was born, had such an unearthly beauty that "when I looked at her, it was as if I could not see her. It was as if she weretransparent." In another, Audrey's older sister recalls that the toddler acted differently on the day she fell into the pool, "like she knew something was going to happen." On her way back from a friend's house, the little girl sat quietly in the back seat of the car, "which was very unlike Audrey." Retold with the mysterious smiles of the great detectives, these explanationsare strange and heartbreaking; how, after all, do we get past mornings like that one? So the family waits in hope for Audrey to get out of bed. Meanwhile, strangers gather, rapt, around a miracle that has no information to convey. "You have all these people mobbing apparition sites to hear the messages," says Clote. "What's interesting to me is that all the samethings arehappening at Audrey's, and yet no one is speaking. It's a little girl lying in bedwith tubes sticking out of her. She's not speaking. And yet people keep coming."
 

DIOCESE OF WORCESTER NEWS

Office of Communications

49 Elm Street, Worcester, MA 01609 Phone/Fax 508 791-5357

Contact: Ray Delisle 508-791-7171 email: rdelisle@worcesterdiocese

 Diocese Issues Interim Findings on Miraculous Claims

Statement by Most. Rev. Daniel P. Reilly, Bishop of Worcester

January 24, 1999 (Summary Report follows)

Over the past eleven years, many unexplainable circumstances have occurred around an innocent, bed-ridden girl named Audrey Santo. In cooperation with the family, I have asked a team of esteemed medical and theological professionals to review the situation to determine its possible impact, negative or positive, on the family and the Catholic faithful.

After a year of careful planning and evaluation, the commission has reported its preliminary findings to me. A summary of those findings is available to anyone who requests them, but I want to share some specific thoughts and concerns at this time as Bishop of the Diocese of Worcester.

The most striking evidence of the presence of God in the Santo home is seen in the dedication of the family to Audrey. Their constant respect for her dignity as a child of God is a poignant reminder that God touches our lives through the love and devotion of others.

There are inexplicable manifestations of oils and other substances emanating from religious objects in the Santo home. They are still under study. The purpose of the Church's investigation is not simply to become a promoter of claims of the miraculous. Rather, it is to review the theological foundations for such claims to assure that the faithful who follow them are not being misled.

In the case of Audrey herself, more study is needed from medical and other professionals regarding her level of awareness and her ability to communicate with the people around her. This is critical to the basis of the claim of her ability to intercede with God. In the meantime, I urge continued prayers for Audrey and her family. But praying to Audrey is not acceptable in Catholic teaching.

We are not yet able to confirm claims of miraculous events occurring at Audrey's home or as a result of a visit to Audrey, or from the oils associated with her. One need not make a personal visit to the Santo home. Indeed, continued demand for personal visitation poses the risk of compromising the family's ability to continue to offer excellent care to their daughter.

Further study has also been recommended and approved by me regarding the composition and source of the oils and other substances. In doing this, I want to underscore that any paranormal occurrences are not miraculous in and of themselves. The consistent practice of the Catholic Church has been not to use such occurrences as verifications of miraculous claims.

Finally, more systematic study must be done before the Church can even begin to evaluate the concept of "victim soul," which has been applied to Audrey. We must proceed quite cautiously here, since this term is not commonly used by the Church except for Christ himself who became the victim for our sins and transgressions on the cross.

While further study is being conducted, please pray for Audrey, for her family and for all those seeking healing and hope. I also ask for prayers to assist us so that this continued investigation will strengthen our faith in God's divine mercy and love.
 

Summary Report

Introduction

The commission named by Bishop Reilly has completed its first phase of investigation of the extraordinary claims resulting from occurrences surrounding Audrey Santo, a young girl who has been in her family's care since an accidental near drowning eleven years ago. After developing a systematic method for investigation, the commission in this phase had as its objective the analysis of existing documents and materials as well as first hand witnessing of
some of the "other than normal" experiences which were occurring at the home.

What was the focus of the commission?

The commission was responsible for developing a methodology for investigation consistent with Catholic teaching on these matters. It included the following four areas:

(1) Explanation of "paranormal" occurrences in the Santo home, namely the emitting of oils from statues and other religious objects and the presence of red stains which some say look like blood on four consecrated hosts.

(2) The ability of Audrey to communicate, at least to recognize the presence of others around her and to comprehend what is being said to her.

(3) The response of the family as it deals with this demanding situation regarding their youngest child, the paranormal activities occurring in the house and the requests by increasingly larger numbers of outsiders to visit Audrey.

Specifically,

Is the family or someone else causing the paranormal activities to occur through some form of chicanery?

What is the quality of the family's general care and concern for their daughter?

Does the family attempt to exploit interest in their situation for financial gain?

Does the family seek notoriety from the situation?

Does the family in any way seek to manipulate those who visit in order to direct their interpretation of the situation?

(4) The basis for the theological interpretations surrounding the claims, including

Are there miracles occurring that can be attributed directly to Audrey?

Is Audrey capable of being a victim soul, a title attributed to her by some people?

Are the claims being made in keeping with Catholic teaching?

Are the daily religious rituals and practices being performed according to approved liturgical practice?

Are the Catholic faithful at risk from anything when they visit the home or read materials from the Apostolate, which reports on Audrey, or view videotapes about Audrey?

Is there the potential of a "cult" forming outside the control of the family or the Apostolate?

How does the Church explain the appearance of oils, blood, and other paranormal activities?

Although we can't explain why oils and claims of blood are appearing on religious articles in the home, there is no obvious evidence of chicanery. There is the need to have controlled tests performed involving some of the religious articles and lab analysis of resulting oils or other secretions since no two reports from past tests have come back with the same results.

Is the presence of this "mysterious" oil significant?

The presence of oil is not proof, direct or indirect, of the miraculous. Paranormal activities in and of themselves, according to the perspective and practice of the Catholic Church, do not provide a basis for proving the miraculous. This has been the Church's confirmed directive for hundreds of years since Pope Benedict XIV. (1740 - 1758)

When one applies fundamental rules of logic to the situation, even if the presence of the oil cannot be explained, one cannot presume that the inability to explain something automatically makes it miraculous. It certainly calls for scientific research and we will continue to do so.

We must be careful not to identify this oil as "holy oil," which could be used to anoint a person. The Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick, which can only be celebrated by a priest or bishop, uses oil blessed by the bishop at the Mass of Chrism, and is given to those who are seriously ill. This oil is properly called "oil of the sick." Additionally, an anointing by a priest or a bishop may be celebrated as part of a Eucharistic Liturgy for those who are ill, using oil blessed following the Rite of Anointing and Pastoral Care of the Sick.

The Church is responsible for determining the essential elements for the celebration of sacraments and how they are to be administered. Church law calls for pure olive oil or other plant oil to be used in the celebration of the sacrament. Consequently, the Church maintains that this "mysterious oil" should not be used in anointing a person who is ill.

Can Audrey communicate?

While family members claim that Audrey is able to communicate, there is no data to corroborate that claim from the available documentation of the medical professionals who have been involved in her care. With the family's cooperation, there is the need to perform specific testing using professionally accepted methods to determine brainwave activity when subjected to various external stimuli, for example the arrival and departure of family members from her room.

How has the family been responding, from the Church's perspective?

The family's constant love and devotion to their daughter is a miracle in the broad sense of the word. They have always recognized the human dignity of their daughter, despite the circumstances. And, they never cease to open up the door to their home as well as their hearts to the needs of the suffering who write to them and call upon them each day.

More than anything else, those who visit the family make note of the excellent care the family gives to their daughter. This has manifested itself in her physical condition, for example, she has not apparently had bedsores in the eleven years she has been confined to her bed.

Does the family seek financial gain from the situation?

There is no evidence that the family has sought financial gain for themselves. On the contrary, they have not sold the oil, which appears in their home and the Apostolate request only nominal donations for videotapes and other materials about Audrey. These donations are used to assist the Apostolate in the costs incurred to correspond with those who have written to Audrey and to publish a periodic newsletter about Audrey.

Notoriety is of some concern. The family does not seek it for themselves but they certainly do so for Audrey. This has led some people to expect intercessions from Audrey and /or miracles long before anyone has had a chance to evaluate these claims more thoroughly. It has also put the family in a more awkward position of having far more demand for personal visits than it can ever accommodate, while continuing to offer excellent care for their daughter.

Are visitors manipulated in order to experience certain things?

Staged or planned manipulation of the visitors to the house is not apparent. The general attitude in the house is friendly, warm and inviting without any sanctimony or undue reverence. However, it must be pointed out that the groups arriving together as they do, often tend to share certain characteristics in facing terminal illness (their own or that of a loved one) or, at least, tend to be far from skeptical regarding the possibility of experiencing a miracle.

Is the Church ready to say one way or another if miracles attributed to Audrey are occurring?

It will take significant time and resources to determine if miracles are directly attributable to Audrey. Many of the cases cited publicly concerning Audrey's intercession have had medical opinions, which did not rule out the potential for normal recovery (in whole or in part.) Before any objective investigation can be done directly on this question, issues such as Audrey's level of consciousness and ability to communicate need to be corroborated (see above request for further testing.) There will also be the need to set up a clearing-house involving medical authorities to review specific claims of physical cures.

Is Audrey a Victim Soul?

The term "victim soul" is not an official term in the Church. It was used in some circles in the 18th and 19th century when there was a fascination with suffering and death, in an attempt to offer the possibility that one person could suffer for another. Christians believe that Jesus is the sacrificial lamb, the victim for our sins. His suffering and death redeemed humanity from sin and eternal death. Through baptism we share in Christ's death with the hope that we will share in his resurrection, his glory. To begin to consider this notion of "victim soul" with regards to
Audrey, one would have to establish a corroborated understanding of Audrey's cognitive abilities. This has yet to be done. Beyond that, one would have to determine that Audrey, at the age of three was, and presently is, capable of making a free choice to accept the suffering of others.

Are there practices at the family's home which are contrary to acceptable Catholic rituals?

Fidelity to the sacraments and to approved liturgical rituals has been noted. Specific areas of concern, such that they should be discontinued regardless of the outcome of this investigation, are as follows:

1. One should only pray for Audrey. Our faith teaches us to pray to God and to pray for the intercession of the saints. Therefore, the distribution of a "Prayer to Audrey" should cease immediately.

2. Whether or not claims of blood are proven to be present on the consecrated Eucharist in the tabernacle in the home, it must be presented in the context that the transubstantiation we witness at every celebration of the Eucharist is the same. There should be no implications that hosts consecrated at Mass in the Santo home are "better" or even unique. When used in Benediction or Exposition, only one consecrated host should be used, in keeping with approved liturgical practice.

Are there any priests officially assigned as chaplains or spiritual directors to Audrey?

No. Priests who are involved with the family are acting on their own behalf in personally working with the family. Audrey and her family are members of Christ the King parish. The pastor of Christ the King is responsive to and available for their spiritual needs.

Is the investigation over?

The first phase of the investigation, which was to compare existing reports for possible corroboration, is complete. Additional quantifiable study is needed, as cited above in this document, in order to attempt to define the composition of the oil and to verify other claims, as well as to determine Audrey's ability to recognize and respond to outside stimuli. Those tests need to be done before determining whether further theological investigation is warranted.
 

The information here was originally accessed at the following site:

The Apostolate of the Silent Soul