Renate Koschinski

Healed after 33 years of coeliac disease in Medjugorje

My health problems began in 1983 when I was in Mexico and got a terrible intestinal infection. While normally such problems subside after a while, there was no improvement for me. From then on, I suffered from this intestinal infection again and again, with severe and painful diarrhoea, which put a lot of strain on me.

They couldn't really help me at the hospital. They suspected that my problems were due to Crohn's disease, a chronic inflammatory bowel disease. It is an autoimmune reaction, one that the body triggers itself. This chronic inflammation of the intestines is not considered curable. My intestinal flora was significantly wiped out  by the constant diarrhoea. I also suffered with persistant intestinal bleeding.

In March 2010, whilest being treated  in Gröbming in Styria, I underwent a thorough intolerance test. As a result, I was diagnosed with coeliac disease for the first time. Since then, I have had to follow a strict diet and was treated with medication. But because my intestinal flora was already so severely affected, nothing changed in my chronically poor and painful state of health. The disease had become a part of me after all these years.

The year 2016 was  especially terrible for me.

When a pilgrimage to Medjugorje was planned in May 2016, I signed up, as I had done so many times before. On this trip we were accompanied by Fr Ubald, a Catholic priest from Rwanda (Central Africa). In medjugorje he held a healing service and invited us all to participate. During the service he gave each of us an individual blessing with the monstrance and at the end of the service he suddenly began to speak to us like this: "Here is a man who has been suffering from prostate cancer for a long time, he does not need to be afraid, Jesus has healed him today". Then he continued, "Here is a woman who has only one kidney left and that kidney is sick and she is waiting for a donor kidney. She doesn't have to wait any longer because Jesus has healed her kidney...." And among other things he said, "Here is a woman who has been told by the doctors that she cannot eat this and that. She can eat anything, Jesus healed her!" When I heard this, I felt greatly affected. I literally cried out to God, may He let it me be! 

At the end of his talk, this priest then asked us to come out to the altar to give our testimony if we felt affected by what he had said. But I suddenly felt inhibited. Because Father Ubald had not mentioned me by name, he spoke of "a woman" and there were many present. So I remained in my seat.  Some people went out and among them was a woman who told us that she was not allowed to eat this and that and that she had terrible digestive problems. The priest interrupted her and asked her if she knew this from experience or if the doctors had told her. She answered that she knew from experience. The priest then told her that it was not she who had been healed, and so she returned to her seat. Then I felt a strong impulse to go out to the altar. I gave in to this impulse and said: "I don't know whether I have been cured, because I have been on a strict diet for years and therefore I avoid all foods containing gluten“. But I promised to eat bread and pastries that same evening after I returned to the hotel, because now I wanted to know for sure. After I had said, "because now I want to know for myself!", Father Ubald came up to me, took hold of my right arm, looked me in the eyes and said, "JESUS HAS HEALED YOU!" I was electrified and walked back to my seat with a swaying step. Once back at the hotel, we had noodle soup, breaded schnitzel, etc. It was then that I realised that I should no longer remove the noodles from the soup. I started to worry ....what If I got cramps after the meal? I would be causing a real problem for the tour guide if I had to go to hospital. I was nervous. But the priest did say, "JESUS HAS HEALED YOU!" and he said that from the altar with Our Lady present. So, what more could I ask for? It was a question of faith! So, hesitantly, I started eating everything that was served to us. And none of what I had feared came to pass.

Since that day in May 2016, I have been able to eat anything without getting intestinal bleeding. I now believe that I have been healed by the grace of God, because I have not taken any relevant medication since then. For me, this is a wonderful miracle!  God is great and He sends His Mother to help us experience His love!

The medical proof of my healing from coeliac disease came only recently during a six-week stay at the rehabilitation centre in Gröbming after I had suffered a fractured vertebrae due to a fall in October 2020. I was fed cereals and wholemeal products there the whole time and yet my medical examination results were still all negative.("Coincidentally", the spa where I was diagnosed with coeliac disease in 2010 is also in the same town).

 

Father Ubald came from Rwanda. In 1963, his father and uncle were murdered by radical Hutus. This was a trigger for his later commitment to forgiveness and reconciliation in his priestly ministry. Then, in 1994, when a total of 85 members of his family, including his mother, were killed during the genocide against the Tutsis, he was once again ready to forgive the murderers of his relatives. His example and his priestly work led to an unexpected wave of reconciliation between the victims and perpetrators in Rwanda. In the course of his reconciliation celebrations and church services, there were many spontaneous healings, often of the most serious infirmities, and God gave Father Ubald the gift of inner sight as to who of the people present had been healed by God (see also the testimonies: "God healed severe spiritual wounds from the genocide in Rwanda and also gave many physical healings", "Stage IV cancer - healed through prayer", "Healed from ulcerative colitis" and "Healed from severe stomach problems during a church service"). An extraordinary number of providences also occurred in his environment (see e.g. "God kept filling my empty hands to help people in Rwanda" and "Examples of how God intervened and helped in our aid projects in Rwanda"). Father Ubald passed away in 2021.

Overwiev