Vatican To Investigate If 'Miracle' Happened At Conn. Church Where Parishioners Claimed Multiplying Hosts

Parishioners stated that Communion hosts at a March Mass unexpectedly multiplied, prompting the Vatican to investigate reports of a "miracle" at a Connecticut-based Catholic church.

The Hartford Courant reported last week that the Archdiocese of Hartford had looked into the allegations at St. Thomas Catholic Church in Thomaston and had sent the findings to the Holy See in Rome.

The alleged miracle happened at a Mar. 5 Mass when a parishioner helping with Communion said there weren't enough hosts, the wafers used in the ceremony to represent Jesus Christ's flesh, only to discover there were plenty.

"God has duplicated himself in the ciborium," said the Rev. Joseph Crowley, who oversees the congregation, referring to the type of container used to hold the hosts. "It's really, really cool when God does these things, and it's really, really cool when we realize what he's done."

Hartford Archbishop Leonard Blair told reporters he appointed a priest well-versed in church law to look into the reported miracle, after the incident, New York Post reported.

The bishop said he would decide whether to involve the Vatican.

David Elliott, a spokesman for the archdiocese, told the Courant that "reports such as the alleged miracle in Thomaston require referral to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome."

According to the Vatican, the dicastery, the oldest department of the Roman Curia, was founded to defend the Catholic Church from heresy.

"The Archdiocese has proceeded accordingly, and will await a response in due time," Elliott said.

But Michael O'Neill, an author and radio host known as "The Miracle Hunter," said the Connecticut church might have a tough time qualifying the multiplying wafers as a genuine miracle.

"I'd be highly surprised that they were able to have enough evidence to declare it a true eucharistic miracle," he told the Courant.

"I'm guessing they have the testimony of numerous people who would have been able to say that they saw something and understood that this had to have been miraculous," he said.

"So I'm guessing they're caught in the middle a little bit not having the hard evidence but having good testimony," O'Neill added. "So they're looking for some guidance from the Vatican."