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The West Bengal government has rejected as ridiculous the Vatican's claim that Mother Teresa had miraculously cured a woman suffering from a tumour.
An inquiry ordered by the government has concluded that Monica Besra was cured of the ovarian tumour after months of medication, not by wearing a medallion with Mother Teresa's photograph.
The Vatican has accepted Besra's recovery as a miracle by the Albania-born nun, and is all set to beatify her, a major step forward in ordaining her as a saint.
The government's inquiry, which ended on Friday, was headed by South Dinajpur Additional District Magistrate Goutam Ghosh.
Ghosh and Arun Sarkar, an official of the Harirampur block, interviewed villagers, doctors, and members of the Besra family before concluding that any talk of a miracle in the woman's cure was baseless.
"Monica Besra's tumour was cured purely by medical science. She received continuous anti-tubercular treatment and went through all the necessary curative processes. So any talk of her case being beyond the comprehension of medical science is baseless," Ghosh told reporters on Saturday.
The state government was forced to order an inquiry into the claims of miracle after doctors and rationalists raised a hue and cry against it.
Doctors who treated Besra have even alleged that representatives of the Roman Catholic Church had tried to tempt them into saying that Mother Teresa's miracle had cured the tribal woman, a mother of two.
Besra's husband Sekhu Murmu has also rejected claims that his wife was cured by a miracle.
But the state's government's inquiry report is not expected to influence the decision of the Vatican to attribute the case to a miracle performed by Mother Teresa. The findings may, at best, be viewed as a blemish in the process of canonizing a person who spent a lifetime serving the poor and the dying.
Mother Teresa is the fourteenth person from India to be considered for sainthood.
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