Deacon Jack Sullivan

Jack Sullivan had just completed the second year of a four-year course to become a deacon – the level of Catholic ministry below priesthood – when he was struck by crippling back pain in 2000. Tests revealed the vertebrae in his lower back had turned inwards and were squeezing his spinal cord, severing the protective layer around the spine. Deacon Jack’s doctor said the case was one of the worst he had ever seen and that he was lucky not to have been paralyzed.

Coming across a television program about Cardinal John Newman which ended with the call to hear from those who had received a divine miracle, Jack Sullivan decided he was due one himself and prayed to the Cardinal that evening for a healing miracle.

Miraculously, upon waking the next morning, the pain was gone, allowing him to complete his third year of classes before the pain returned, on the final day of the academic year. He underwent an additional surgery and although successful, the pain remained.

It was only a few days after this operation that he recited his prayer to Cardinal John Newman once again- and within that moment, Jack Sullivan felt a powerful wave of heat transfix across his body. It was at that moment that the pain disappeared. Convinced his healing was the result of divine intervention by way of his prayer, he began the process that would ultimately see Jack Sullivan’s 2001 healing confirmed by the Pope as miraculous after eight years of investigation by a Vatican panel of medical experts.

Jack Sullivan successfully completed his studies to become a deacon, and was ordained in 2002 and his flock these days includes prisoners whom he advises not to give up hope of redemption against adversity.