Faith healing

====Catholicism====
{{See also|Intercession of saints}}
The [[Roman Catholic Church]] recognizes two "not mutually exclusive" kinds of healing,<ref name="CDF2000">{{cite web|author=Catholic Church. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith|date=2000-09-14|title=Instruction on prayers for healing|website=vatican.va|location=Vatican City|url=https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20001123_istruzione_en.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010124043700/https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20001123_istruzione_en.html|archive-date=2001-01-24|url-status=live}}</ref>{{rp|at=I,3}}<ref name="USCCB2009">{{cite web|author=Catholic Church. United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. Committee on Doctrine|date=2009-03-25|title=Guidelines for evaluating Reiki as an alternative therapy|website=usccb.org|location=Washington, DC|publisher=United States Conference of Catholic Bishops|url=http://www.usccb.org/about/doctrine/publications/upload/evaluation-guidelines-finaltext-2009-03.pdf|access-date=2015-11-04|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140508224046/http://www.usccb.org/about/doctrine/publications/upload/evaluation-guidelines-finaltext-2009-03.pdf|archive-date=2014-05-08|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{rp|at=nn2–3}} one justified by science and one justified by faith:
* healing by human "natural means {{interp|...}} through the practice of medicine" which emphasizes that the [[theological virtue]] of "[[Charity (virtue)|charity]] demands that we not neglect natural means of healing people who are ill" and the [[cardinal virtue]] of [[prudence]] forewarns not "to employ a technique that has no scientific support (or even plausibility)"<ref name="USCCB2009"/>{{rp|at=nn2–3, 6, 10}}
* healing by divine grace "interceded on behalf of the sick through the invocation of the name of the Lord Jesus, asking for healing through the power of the Holy Spirit, whether in the form of the sacramental [[Christian laying on of hands|laying on of hands]] and [[Anointing of the Sick (Catholic Church)|anointing with oil]] or of simple prayers for healing, which often include an [[Intercession of saints|appeal to the saints for their aid]]"<ref name="USCCB2009"/>{{rp|at=n2}}

In 2000, the [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] issued "Instruction on prayers for healing" with specific norms about prayer meetings for obtaining healing,<ref name="CDF2000"/> which presents the Catholic Church's doctrines of sickness and healing.<ref name="Ascoli2009">{{cite book|last=Ascoli|first=Micol|year=2009|chapter=Psychotherapy or religious healing? : the 'therapeutic' cult of charismatic Catholics in Italy|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Su9Zhe3HglsC&pg=PA229|editor1-last=Incayawar|editor1-first=Mario|editor2-last=Wintrob|editor2-first=Ronald|editor3-last=Bouchard|editor3-first=Lise|title=Psychiatrist and traditional healers : unwitting partners in global mental health|pages=229–236|series=WPA series, evidence and experience in psychiatry|location=Hoboken, NJ|publisher=J. Wiley & Sons|doi=10.1002/9780470741054.ch18|isbn=978-0470741054}}</ref>{{rp|page=230}}{{explain|date=July 2021}}

It accepts "that there may be means of natural healing that have not yet been understood or recognized by science",<ref name="USCCB2009"/>{{rp|at=n6}}{{efn|According to a ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' article about [[psychotherapy]] from 1911, the application of scientific principles has probably been the responsible cause of more faith cures than anything else. Faith in a [[scientific discovery]] acts through the mind of a patient to bring about an improvement of symptoms, if not a cure of the disease. The patients who are cured usually suffer from<!-- !  check for tone !--> [[chronic condition]]s, they either have only a [[persuasion]] that they are ill or have some physical ailment, but the patients inhibit through {{linktext|solicitude}} and worry the natural forces that would bring about a cure. This inhibition cannot be lifted until the mind is relieved by confidence in a remedy or scientific discovery that gives them a conviction of cure.<ref name="Walsh1911"/>}} but it rejects superstitious practices which are neither compatible with Christian teaching nor compatible with scientific evidence.<ref name="USCCB2009"/>{{rp|at=nn11–12}}

Faith healing is reported by [[Catholic Church|Catholics]] as the result of [[intercessory prayer]] to a [[saint]] or to a person with the [[gifts of healing|gift of healing]]. According to ''[[Claretians#Publications|U.S. Catholic]]'' magazine, "Even in this skeptical, postmodern, scientific age{{snd}}miracles really are possible." According to a ''Newsweek'' poll, three-fourths of American Catholics say they pray for "miracles" of some sort.<ref name=Scanlon>{{cite news |first= Leslie |last= Scanlon |title= It's a miracle! |magazine= [[U.S. Catholic (magazine)|U.S. Catholic]] |date= June 2009 |volume= 74 |issue= 6 |page= 12 |url= http://www.uscatholic.org/church/2009/05/its-miracle}}</ref>

According to John Cavadini, when healing is granted, "The miracle is not primarily for the person healed, but for all people, as a sign of God's work in the ultimate healing called 'salvation', or a sign of the kingdom that is coming." Some might view their own healing as a sign they are particularly worthy or holy, while others do not deserve it.<ref name=Scanlon/>

The Catholic Church has a special Congregation dedicated to the careful investigation of the validity of alleged miracles attributed to prospective saints. Pope Francis tightened the rules on money and miracles in the canonization process.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2016/09/23/vatican-tightens-rules-miracles-money-sainthood-cases/|title=Vatican tightens rules on miracles and money in sainthood cases|date=2016-09-23|work=Crux|access-date=2017-04-26|language=en-US|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170427101140/https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2016/09/23/vatican-tightens-rules-miracles-money-sainthood-cases/|archive-date=2017-04-27|url-status=dead}}</ref> Since Catholic Christians believe the lives of canonized saints in the Church will reflect Christ's, many have come to expect healing miracles. While the popular conception of a miracle can be wide-ranging, the Catholic Church has a specific definition for the kind of miracle formally recognized in a canonization process.<ref name=Pinches>{{cite journal |last= Pinches |first= Charles |title= Miracles: A Christian theological overview |journal= [[Southern Medical Journal]] |year= 2007 |volume= 100 |issue= 12 |pages= 1236–1242 |pmid= 18090969 |doi= 10.1097/SMJ.0b013e31815843cd |s2cid= 33420931 }}</ref>

According to ''Catholic Encyclopedia'', it is often said that cures at [[shrine]]s and during [[Christian pilgrimage]]s are mainly due to psychotherapy{{snd}}partly to confident trust in [[Divine providence]], and partly to the strong expectancy of cure that comes over suggestible persons at these times and places.<ref name="Walsh1911">{{Catholic|inline=1|title=Psychotherapy|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12549a.htm|first=James J.|last=Walsh|volume=12}}</ref>{{efn|A pre-1911 analysis of the records of cures shows that the majority of accepted cures have been in patients suffering from<!-- !  check for tone !--> demonstrable physical conditions.<ref name="Walsh1911"/>}}

Among the best-known accounts by Catholics of faith healings are those attributed to the miraculous intercession of the apparition of the [[Blessed Virgin Mary]] known as [[Our Lady of Lourdes]] at the [[Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes]] in [[France]] and the remissions of life-threatening disease claimed by those who have applied for aid to [[Saint Jude]], who is known as the "[[patron saint]] of lost causes".
{{Failed verification|talk=Poor explanation of Catholic understanding|date=September 2015}}<ref name="Bertrin1910">{{Catholic|inline=1|title=Notre-Dame de Lourdes|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09389b.htm|first=Georges|last=Bertrin|volume=9}}</ref>

{{As of|2004}}, Catholic medics have asserted that there have been 67 miracles and 7,000 unexplainable medical cures at Lourdes since 1858.<ref name="zenit">{{cite web |url= http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/ZLURDCUR.HTM |title= How Lourdes cures are recognized as miraculous |date= February 11, 2004 |work= ZENIT Daily Dispatch |publisher= [[Zenit News Agency]] |access-date= 2007-12-14 |via= ewtn.com |archive-date= 2007-11-21 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20071121192519/http://www.ewtn.com/library/MARY/ZLURDCUR.HTM |url-status= dead }} Citing {{cite conference|editor=Associazione Medici Cattolici Italiani. Sezione di Milano|year=2004|book-title=Il medico di fronte al miracolo|conference=Convegno promosso dall'A.M.C.I. tenuto a Milano il 23 novembre 2002|language=it|location=Cinisello Balsamo, IT|publisher=Edizioni Paoline|isbn=978-8821550607|title=Il medico di fronte al miracolo}}</ref> In a 1908 book, it says these cures were subjected to intense medical scrutiny and were only recognized as authentic spiritual cures after a commission of doctors and scientists, called the [[Lourdes Medical Bureau]], had ruled out any physical mechanism for the patient's recovery.<ref name="Bertrin1908">{{cite book|last=Bertrin|first=Georges|year=1908|title=Lourdes: a history of its apparitions and cures|others=Translated by Agnes Mary Rowland Gibbs|location=New York [u.a.]|publisher=Benziger Brothers|oclc=679304003|hdl=2027/nnc1.0020343540}}</ref>