Opened by Monterey Diocese

The following comes from a March 7 story in Catholic San Francisco.

The Vatican is reviewing documents that would allow the cause of sainthood to go forward for a wife, mother, and possible mystic who was baptized Catholic in 1935 after becoming disillusioned with the Mormon faith.

Cora Evans reported visions of Jesus and the saints and a mission from Jesus to promote the “Mystical Humanity of Christ,” the idea that Christ is always within us and we should behave always as Christ would, said Mike McDevitt, a parishioner at Our Lady of the Pillar in Half Moon Bay, who is the promoter of Evans’ cause of sainthood. The spirituality is also focused on praying the Mass.

Evans’ two children were baptized with her in Ogden, Utah, and her husband, Mack, became Catholic shortly afterward, with many family and friends following her from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints into the Catholic Church, said McDevitt. Born in 1904, she died in Boulder Creek, near Monterey, March 30, 1957. She moved to Southern California in 1941 and to Boulder Creek in 1956.

“Cora loved the Mormons. She considered the Mormons her heritage people,” said McDevitt. “She wanted them to know who Jesus was and she wanted them to have the Eucharist. She prayed for Mormons.”

Jesus as well as many saints reportedly appeared multiple times to Evans, according to the two-page chronology sent by Monterey Bishop Richard Garcia to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in Rome.

In a reported vision Dec. 24, 1946, Jesus entrusted Evans with the mission “to promulgate the Mystical Humanity of Christ (the Divine Indwelling) within souls – as a way of prayer in the United States and throughout the world. Jesus promises to foster the devotion,” according to the document.

Was this a true vision or a true mission from Jesus? That is what the process is designed to discover, said Father Joseph Grimaldi, a canon lawyer who was appointed by Bishop Garcia as the postulator for the Cora Evans sainthood cause….

“The case seems pretty hopeful despite the fact that Cora Evans is relatively unknown,” said Father Grimaldi. Father Grimaldi was involved with verifying the miracle that led to the canonization of St. Damien of Molokai and with the exhumation of the body of one of St. Damien’s helpers, Blessed Marianne Cope, who will be canonized Oct. 21.

Evans experienced the stigmata, the wounds of Jesus on the cross, according to reports, but that in itself is not a guarantee of canonization, Father Grimaldi said.

Click here for entire story.

READER COMMENTS

Posted Monday, March 12, 2012 12:38 AM By charlio
Neither this article nor that on Catholic San Francisco mentions it, but there is a well made website, called parishretreat.org, which includes the cause for Cora Evans’ sainthood, but which primarily emphasizes the Mystical Humanity of Christ, The Divine Indwelling. (The website can be found by searching for the terms “Cora Evans cause”.) The section dedicated to Cora Evans is found in the left menu, the third main menu heading (purple background), “The Cause for Cora Evans”.

Posted Monday, March 12, 2012 8:17 AM By ldc
I will pray for her intercession on my behalf, but also want people to know that there are many saints, in our family and even friends, that have died and no one knows much about them but ourselves (each one of us) know who they are, I know one in my family, a grand-aunt, who I pray for her intercession in guidance and a holy priest, in our parish we all agreed, Fr. Stack….the Church cannot know them all but there are many saints among us and in Heaven…let us all pray to Cora Evans for our Nations most crucial Election Nov. 2012, we need to get the right person there to save our Country and our Constitution, God Bless America