As he read prepared remarks to news media about the improbable healing of his ankle attributed to Blessed Giorgio Frassati, Father Juan Gutierrez paused and took a deep breath.
He was relieved to finally be speaking about this once-closely guarded secret, yet also uncomfortable in the face of so many cameras, lights, and microphones.
If anything got him through the Dec. 16 press conference, it was gratitude.
“To be part of this miracle has been like being on a roller coaster,” Gutierrez said. “There have been moments of excitement, anticipation, trepidation, and even fear. There have been moments that left me thinking, ‘How did I end up here? And what was I thinking when I got on this ride?’ But at the end of the day, I am left with a heart filled with gratitude and awe at what God does in our lives.”
Gutierrez spoke to media following the Dec. 15 publication of his story in Angelus, in which he described the experience the Vatican has recognized as the second confirmed miracle needed for the canonization case of Blessed Frassati, a young Italian who will be officially declared a saint by Pope Francis next Aug. 3 at the 2025 Jubilee of Young People in Rome.
The Dec. 16 media event at St. John the Baptist Church in Baldwin Park, where Gutierrez serves as associate pastor, drew more than a thousand viewers on YouTube. It featured appearances by a few key figures in Gutierrez’s story, including Archbishop José H. Gomez, who ordained Gutierrez a priest in 2022 and authorized the canonical investigation into his case. Joining remotely was Brooklyn priest Msgr. Robert Sarno, a retired official at the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints who led the investigation, and Frassati’s 97-year-old niece, Wanda Gawronska, who connected via Zoom from her home in Rome.
Gutierrez injured himself playing basketball in 2017 while a seminarian at St. John’s Seminary in Camarillo. When an MRI showed he had torn his Achilles tendon, Gutierrez decided the next day to pray a nine-day novena to Blessed Frassati on what almost seemed like a whim.
One day while praying in the seminary chapel, Gutierrez felt a warm sensation in his ankle. Days later, an orthopedic surgeon could find no evidence of the tear shown by the MRI just two weeks earlier.
After sharing his testimony with supporters of Frassati, and receiving no reply, a chance encounter with Msgr. Sarno during a special course at St. John’s led to a formal investigation into his story.
After recounting his story to the news media, Gutierrez acknowledged the question that’s hounded him for years: “Why me?”
“I ask myself the same question,” said Gutierrez. “But as Scripture tells us, it wasn’t us who chose the Lord. It was him who chooses us. He has chosen us to bear fruit. And this healing is meant to bear fruit.
“Like Albert Einstein used to say: There are people for whom everything is a miracle, and there are people for whom nothing is a miracle. We need to choose the approach we want to take.
“They can look at the evidence and then make their own conclusions.”
During the livestreamed press event, Archbishop Gomez noted that while the word “miracle” can be overused, Gutierrez’s healing was truly a blessing from God. He also pointed out that there are many saints with ties to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and was quick to welcome Frassati into their company.
“His healing was a miracle, his doctors could not explain it,” Archbishop Gomez said. “Los Angeles is truly a city of the angels and also a city of saints. Now, we have a new saint who is watching over us from heaven.”
Msgr. Sarno, speaking remotely from New York, listed the several factors that seemed to align in order for the Vatican to take Gutierrez’s experience seriously.
After hearing Gutierrez’s story and finding “substance” to the case, Msgr. Sarno launched a canonical investigation, poring over medical tests and files and examining theological questions such as who he prayed to, how the prayers were handled, and allowing the Vatican’s medical experts to scrutinize and question.
Now that Pope Francis has declared this case a miracle, Frassati is slated to be canonized in August, and Gutierrez hopes to attend the ceremony.
“For this wonderful and happy occasion, we thank God for the wonderful gift that this canonization will bring to the Church in Los Angeles and the Church throughout the world,” Msgr. Sarno said.
In her remarks, Gawronska thanked Archbishop Gomez and all those involved in obtaining the Vatican’s approval of the miracle, noting it came a century after Frassati’s death in 1925. She also took the opportunity to read from a letter that Frassati had written exactly 100 years to the day earlier.
“I hope with the grace of God to continue along the path of Catholic ideas and to be able one day, in whatever state God wills, to defend and propagate these rare and true things,” wrote Frassati to a friend Dec. 16, 1924.
Gawronska noted that Frassati’s openness to “whatever state God wills” included death.
“In this way he could propagate the ‘true things’ from heaven to the whole world,” said Gawronska.
The parish hall where the press event was held was also filled with students from St. John the Baptist School, parishioners who celebrated Mass with Father Gutierrez before the press conference, and local Catholics who wanted to celebrate the news.
One such group was the Young Knights of Frassati, clad in matching blue T-shirts emblazoned with their club name, from nearby St. Louise de Marillac School in Covina. The group, featuring boys in grades 6-8, began four years ago and teaches the students skills that Blessed Frassati valued: Faith, gentlemanly skills, hikes and outdoor adventures.
“When we heard it was Father Juan who was healed through the intercession of Pier Giorgio, we immediately wanted to get these guys over here,” said Mark Ebiner-Gavit, 28, a fifth-grade teacher at St. Louise and founder of the group.
As the event wound down — media obligations fulfilled, congratulations from parishioners, photos with students taken — Gutierrez again tried to take a moment to collect himself.
“Little by little has prepared me to recognize this is not about me,” Gutierrez said. “I happen to be a recipient of this miracle, but it’s not about me. It’s about God.
“Today we gather to share a news that reminds us that prayer works, the saints can help us to pray for our needs, and that there is somebody listening to our prayers. God is always listening.”
