Healing Priest: Fr. Fernando Suarez

DEUTERONOMY 32:39 “See now that I, [even] I, [am] he, and [there is] no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither [is there any] that can deliver out of my hand.”

Wisdom: The reason why the people were healed was because of their faith toward the man. If you only believe then God will heal you. This man was only an instrument to bring back the faith of the people that there is still a God that heals. Our scripture emphasize that there is only one God, and there’s no other God Moises introduced. The God that know the time, when to give and when to take our lives.

Philippines – He died and came back to life. But after three hours, he died again. According to Hilario and Filomena Tapnio, this happened to their 39-year-old cancer-stricken son Alberto, in a span of four hours, which included a brief encounter with healing priest Fr. Fernando Suarez.The Tapnio couple said the first time Alberto died was when he slumped in his wheelchair as Suarez was giving his homily during the 10 a.m. healing Mass on Monday at the Lakeshore Estate in Mexico, Pampanga.Dr. Maria Theresa Velasquez said Alberto was already dead when medics from the Pampanga Disaster Coordinating Council brought him to the emergency room of the Mt. Carmel Medical Center here at 11:40 a.m.“He was DOA (dead on arrival),” Velasquez, the attending physician, told the Philippine Daily Inquirer, parent company of INQUIRER.net.“He had zero-zero vital signs. No cardiac or respiratory activity at all,” said Dr. Rogelio Magat, acting medical administrative officer, citing medical records.Fr. Nap Baltazar earlier told the Inquirer that after he whispered to Suarez that Alberto had died, the healing priest made the sign of the cross in the air in the direction of the man who was then being borne on a stretcher.

Electric shocks: In the hospital emergency room, Velasquez said the doctors administered a series of electric shocks to Alberto’s heart to make it start pumping. His heart resumed beating shortly before noon, she said.The family decided to take him home “against medical advice,” said Velasquez. He was not brought back to the healing Mass, as reported Tuesday by the Inquirer. Velasquez and a male nurse accompanied Alberto home to the Bulaon resettlement. He lived for another three hours and died again at 3 p.m., his death certificate showed.

Extension, not a miracle: Although organizers of the healing Mass were quick to announce that Alberto’s revival was a result of Suarez’s blessing from a distance, Hilario did not call his son’s last four hours a miracle.“He got a short extension on life and left this world happy because he saw and heard Father Suarez,” he said. Alberto, an automotive mechanic who became a tailor so he could work in South Korea, left a 14-year-old son. His wife died of cancer of the pancreas four years ago.

Wake: At the wake Tuesday, Hilario and Filomena told the Inquirer that their son died happy.“Masaya ya pangamate. Eya malulam a lupa. Dimdan na ing bendisyon ng Father Suarez. At tinggap na (He had a happy death. His face was not sad. He heard the blessing of Father Suarez. And he received it),” Hilario said.Filomena said her son, who had colon cancer, was given six months to live. “He’s had eight months. [He] really wanted to die in the presence of Father Suarez,” she recalled Alberto saying in early January.