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These are kept under medical supervision for a year, then examined again. If favorable, the report then goes to an International Commission—40 prominent Roman Catholic physicians—which meets once a year in Paris. If the International Commission approves, a final report is sent to the bishop of the patient's diocese (in de Borse's case, the Archbishop of Westminster), who in turn sets up a canonical committee to decide whether the cure is to be regarded as miraculous.
By the time all this has happened, doctors point out, de Borse's cancer may recur, and even if it does not, the case is remarkable rather than unprecedented. All agree, however, that his dramatic recovery dated from the visit to Lourdes. And perhaps the strangest factor of all is de Borse's own remembrance of the event. "I don't think I had faith in the cure at Lourdes," he admits. "I was just called there. I felt I had to go."