Antonietta Raco in wheelchair during the pilgrimage to Lourdes in 2009 and, on the right, in 2012 after healing with the Unitalsi barelliera dress
The 72nd miracle of Lourdes was presented on Saturday 26 July. We republish an interview that was made in 2018 to Antonietta Raco. Unitalsi volunteer is the first case of degenerative disease healing of the first motorway, as Sandro de Franciscis, president of the Bureau des Constatitions Médicles of Lourdes, explained. The miracle was officially proclaimed on April 16.
«I fell ill with primary lateral sclerosis in 2004, I could no longer walk. After wandering through doctors and hospitals without finding any diagnosis, Professor Adriano Chiò delle Molinette of Turin precisely diagnosed me with the disease. I had respiratory problems, I couldn’t swallow and I was talking to difficulty. In 2007 I ended up in the wheelchair because the crutches were no longer enough ». Antonietta Raco60 years old, Lucana di Francavilla in Sinni (Potenza), married to Antonio and mother of four children, never pronounces the word “miracle”. It tells with simplicity what happened to her in Lourdes in the summer of 2009 when she went on a pilgrimage with Unitalsi. “I did not go to ask for my healing, “he specifies,” but that of a girl from my country with leukodystrophy. On the shoulders, throughout the pilgrimage, I carried his shirt and I was wet in the waters of the pools ».
As soon as you arrive, after a day and a half of travel by train from Battipaglia, Antonietta asks to go to the appearance cave immediately: «It was around 9.30 pm. On the avenue of theEsplanade I saw a great light starting from the bottom and going upwards. In this light I saw the Madonna in prayer facing the sanctuary who invited me to go on. I didn’t tell anyone anything. ” Finally arrived at the cave, Antonietta gathered in prayer: “I said these words: “Madonnina Mia I thank you for making me get here. Give the strength to me and my family to serenely face everything that still has to happen and heal, please, this little girl”».
The next day Antonietta asked to bathe in the swimming pools: “There were two hospitals who kept my arms. While I was entering the tub I heard a hug on the neck, I turned around thinking that it was the volunteer but they were committed to keeping me and I felt a sweet voice of a woman who three times repeated this sentence to me: “Don’t be afraid!”. I started crying because I understood that something was happening. Then I felt a very strong pain in my legs, as if they were snatching them. You continue to pray and I said nothing to the volunteers of that voice ».
“I can’t explain to me why I just”
On August 6, Antonietta returns home: «While I was sitting on the sofa I heard the same female voice of me who said to me: “Call it and tell him”. I didn’t know what to say, I thought I had hallucinations and that the disease had worsened. I called my husband Antonio and I got up, took a few steps without crutches. He thought I fell, at that moment I realized that Lourdes was healed in Lourdes and not the girl I had prayed for ».
Antonietta’s life has changed radically: “Since then I walk, I have all the household chores, I don’t need help and I have become a unit voluntary“He says,” some time after Professor Chiò he visited me, together with all his medical team, and remained surprised because he did not expect to see me walking and able to lift my legs. They told me they had never had cases similar to mine. In Lourdes my life has changed, I received a gift even if I don’t explain why the Madonna healed me and not the girl I had prayed for ».
