The story of the Australian man who was declared dead and then ‘miraculously’ resurrected after a horrific crash close to the Ta’ Pinu shrine in Melbourne, is not the first attributed to an act of grace, according to the director of the shrine.
Asked if there were ever any other miraculous claims connected to the Ta’ Pinu shrine in Melbourne, Mgr Benedict Camilleri said: “Yes, we had other cases, but one always has to be prudent about talking about them”.
Mgr Camilleri, 83, from Għarb, who set up the Our Lady Shrine in Ta’ Pinu in Melbourne, told The Sunday Times of Malta that he became aware of the story of Daniel Huf, 30, last week.
Mr Huf’s parents believe their son was saved by a miracle last year, when his sports car struck another vehicle and flipped over on a highway. With no beating pulse, and no sign of life, he was declared dead by the paramedics on the scene.
An hour-and-a-half later, when the undertaker arrived, Mr Huf’s lifeless body started twitching; his chest moved up and down spasmodically, irregularly. Emergency service workers who were recovering his body from the wreckage realised he was alive.
Mgr Camilleri felt that he could not pass any “rash judgment” on Mr Huf’s story.
“However, all the people involved in the case seem to be saying that it was something miraculous,” he said, referring to the statements of the State Emergency Services and the director of the burial service who called at the crash scene.
“It has to be established whether he was still alive, or if he effectively resurrected,” said Mgr Camilleri, who has been a visiting spiritual director for the past 20 years.
Before that, he had been director of the Ta’ Pinu shrine in Għarb for 30 years. The shrine has had many devotees since a Gozitan woman, Karmni Grima, claimed to hear the voice of the Virgin Mary there in 1883.
His setting up of the little chapel with a terrace and a cross that overlooks the western highway where the accident took place, stemmed from his personal devotion to Our Lady Ta’ Pinu.
Asked if there were any plans to inform the Vatican, Mgr Camilleri said: “These things take time. First of all it’s the diocese which needs to be consulted.”
He only got to know about the story on Wednesday, when contacted by The Herald Sun, which ran a story on Mr Huf’s progress a year on from the accident.
His parents Lutheran Pastor Colin and Betty Huf told Australian media that the cross now stands as a sign. “God was looking out for Daniel; he was meant to survive, with or without the help of humans.”
The crash had left Mr Huf looking like he had been blasted in the face with a shotgun: his bottom jaw was broken in six places, sections were missing, he had broken eye sockets, cheek and nasal bones.
Parts of his Porsche sports car and debris were embedded in his wound.
He suffered post-traumatic amnesia for 93 days after his accident, which normally results in severe brain damage.
But in his case, it has not.
Ta’ Pinu in Gozo
On the morning of June 22, 1883, Carmela Grima heard a voice calling her as she was walking past a deserted chapel in the Għarb countryside, asking her to go in the chapel and pray. Her friend, Francesco Portelli, had also been hearing voices asking him to pray.
When Portelli’s mother fell ill in 1886, he vowed to light a lamp in the chapel should his mother recover. He believed her subsequent recovery was a miracle, and they informed the Church authorities.
The word quickly spread around and several acts of grace, such as Gozo’s escape from the plague and escape from serious damage in World War II, together with many miracles of healing, have since been attributed to the intercession of Our Lady of Ta’ Pinu.