Drexel - St. Katharine's 2 living miracles pay tribute

Robert Gutherman's family prayed for his pain to stop. Amy Wall's family prayed that they would learn to communicate with her.

The two families got more than they prayed for, according to the Roman Catholic Church - miracles from a Philadelphia nun who would become a saint.

"The miracles were not just for us as individuals," Gutherman said. "They were miracles for the universe to see."

Yesterday, Gutherman and Wall both recalled their extraordinary experiences in interviews at the Cathedral Basilica of Ss. Peter & Paul, where they attended a Mass for the Feast of St. Katharine Drexel.

Drexel, a Philadelphia native, was not yet a saint when the two Bucks County families prayed to her spirit for help with issues surrounding their children's hearing loss.

When both children's hearing was restored - about 20 years apart - their families attributed the recoveries to Drexel and the two events led Pope John Paul II to canonize her.

Gutherman, who works for a direct-mail company, was 14 in 1974 when it was determined that an infection had eaten away two bones in his right ear. Doctors told him he would never be able to hear in that ear again.

The pain was excruciating, Gutherman said. His mother and their large family, who lived near Drexel's Bensalem convent, began praying to Drexel for his pain to subside.

"At the time, we weren't looking for a miracle," he said. "We didn't know we needed a miracle."

But his doctors, he said, had no explanation when his ear bones regenerated and his hearing was restored.

Wall, now 15, was born with nerve deafness that rendered her unable to hear.

Her mother, Connie, drew a connection between an aunt's pair of salt and pepper shakers made by Navajos at one of Drexel's numerous missions and a 1993 PBS special on Gutherman and his family's prayers to Drexel.

Wall's mother - who recently died - urged the family to pray to Drexel, not just for Amy but so that her two siblings and parents could learn to adapt.

"Mom wanted for us to pray to be a good family, to communicate well and to learn sign language," Jack Wall, Amy's 22-year-old brother, recalled yesterday as he stood with Amy in an aisle after the Mass.

As it turned out, by the following year they didn't have to learn alternative avenues of communication: Amy now could hear perfectly.

"I was in second grade at the time," Jack Wall said. "My reaction was, 'Duh, that's what I expected to happen when you pray.' "

But their mother was shocked.

"Our mom wouldn't believe it until she took me to the doctors and they said, 'This isn't the same child,' " Amy Wall said, recalling stories her mother told her.

Amy was nearing her second birthday when her hearing kicked in. She remembers little from those days, aside from what her family has told her. In fact, she didn't learn about what the Catholic Church considered her "miracle" until she was in second grade.

When Pope John Paul II canonized Drexel in 2000, Amy was just 8 years old. She remembers being overwhelmed by the news coverage. "It was crazy," she said.

Gutherman remembers that it took 14 years for the church to investigate his "miracle."

"Rome leaves no stones unturned," he said.

Today, both Gutherman and Wall feel connected to the spirit of Drexel, a woman from a wealthy Philadelphia family who felt a burning desire to join the church, to serve black and Native American citizens and to found her own order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament.

Gutherman considers this an exciting time for Drexel. Not only does this year mark her 150th birthday and the 200th anniversary of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia - but last week the Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel in Bensalem was designated a national shrine by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

"She wouldn't have wanted something like that, all the attention," he speculated. "But she would be happy if it brought more people to the Eucharist."

Amy Wall can't remember too many instances when her miracle was tested, but she does remember a confrontation with a substitute teacher.

"He said, 'I don't believe in miracles. Everything can be proven with science,' " Amy recalled. "I sat there and said, 'What if you had a miracle happen to you?' "

Gutherman recalls one instance when his miracle was questioned. He was speaking to a group of deaf people who wanted to know: What is so wrong with being deaf?

"I told them there was nothing wrong with being deaf," he said. "The problem is that those of us who hear don't necessarily listen."

He said one of the lessons Drexel bestowed upon him and others is to listen to - not just to hear - the messages God gave in the gospel.

Yesterday, Gutherman's youngest of three daughters, Elizabeth, 4, didn't seem interested in her father as a miracle-recipient as she played with his face to keep occupied during Mass. But his eldest daughter, Rebecca, 15, beamed with pride.

"I think it's pretty cool," she said. "It's something to be proud of, and it's definitely deepened my faith."

"Right now I'm deepening my relationship with the big man up top," she said. "But Saint Katharine is one heck of a lady, I do know that."