Clemente a step closer to sainthood?
Hall of Fame baseball player Roberto Clemente is one step closer to becoming a saint, according to Christian Newswire, which reported late last month that Pope Francis officially declared the former Pittsburgh Pirate “blessed.”
The pope’s official blessing came after Clemente apparently met the requirement to perform a miracle. The alleged miracle happened last month when former Olympian Jamie Nieto, who played Clemente in the film “Baseball’s Last Hero,” managed to walk again after a back-flip accident in April 2016 rendered the high jumper partially paralyzed from the neck down. His signature move during his competitive years more than a decade ago, Nieto tried to perform the move as a coach, but slipped and broke his neck.
Despite given a slim chance by doctors to regain enough strength and mobility in his legs to walk again, Nieto proved them wrong, the Associated Press reports. The Olympian took 130 nearly unaided steps at his wedding to Jamaican hurdler Shevon Stoddart. He had proposed to her while still in a wheelchair just six months after his accident.
While Nieto credited his recovery to his having “worked really hard,” according to the AP, “Baseball’s Last Hero” director Richard Rossi credited Nieto’s “miracle” recovery to the spirit of Clemente. His proof, according to Christian Newswire, is documented in a letter he wrote last year to Pope Francis. “In meditation, it was revealed to me that Roberto Clemente was a saint,” Rossi wrote. “I saw a miracle healing of Jamie Nieto. He will walk at his own wedding to show the grace of the sacrament of marriage. Jesus performed his first miracle at the wedding of Cana.”
To become canonized, potential saints need to show proof of at least two miracles.