by Jennifer Willems

PEORIA, Ill. (CNS) – That James Fulton Engstrom celebrated his first birthday Sept. 16 is amazing. In fact, some would call his life a miracle.

Considered stillborn one year ago after his mother’s healthy pregnancy and “a beautiful, short labor,” James was without a pulse for the first 61 minutes of his life. It was only when doctors at OSF St. Francis Medical Center in Peoria were ready to call the time of death that his little heart started beating.

His parents, Travis and Bonnie Engstrom, believe James is alive because of the intercession of Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen, a candidate for sainthood.

On Sept. 7, a tribunal of inquiry was sworn in to investigate the tot’s alleged miraculous healing. Joining James and his family at the ceremony in Peoria were Bishop Daniel R. Jenky; Andrea Ambrosi, postulator for the cause; and members of the Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen Foundation board, some of whom are relatives of the late archbishop.

Peoria is the late archbishop’s home diocese. His cause was officially opened in 2002. The Sheen Foundation centralized its operations in the diocese in 2007.

In addition to Bishop Jenky and Ambrosi, others sworn in included Msgr. Jason Gray, a pastor and judicial vicar of the diocesan marriage tribunal, who as episcopal delegate to the Sheen tribunal is responsible for guiding the process; and Dr. Louis Varela, a Houston family physician and chair of the Sheen Foundation board, is the Sheen tribunal’s medical expert.

The tribunal’s work takes place in secret, so there is much that Msgr. Gray cannot say. But since the Engstroms have shared their story widely, he said the general details could be made public.

Msgr. Gray noted that the tribunal’s task is to investigate the alleged miraculous healing and determine whether it can be proved through medical documents and the testimony of witnesses.

“We call them to testify to different things,” he said, including the seriousness of the medical condition. “We call them to testify about the fact that prayers were addressed to Fulton Sheen asking for his intercession. And then we need witnesses to testify to the end result, meaning that the crisis situation was cured, that health was restored.”

Not only will the tribunal confer with the doctors and nurses involved in the case, but also with two outside doctors who can report on the child’s current state of health.

The number of witnesses is small, so testimony should be collected relatively quickly. Some time will be needed, however, for the two outside doctors to make their examinations.