Bishop Reilly Commission

In 1997, Bishop Daniel Reilly as Bishop of Worcester responded to the concerns of many inquiries to him and appointed an Investigatory Commission regarding Audrey Santo.  They provided him with a 15 page written report dated August 31, 1998, and signed by John M. Madonna, Jr, Ed. D., a Licensed Psychologist and Certified Psychoanalyst, and Robert A. Ciottone, Ph. P., a Diplomat in Clinical Psychology and a Fellow of the American Academy of Clinical Psychology.  The information was collected in the following manner and is detailed in their report:

• an initial "unoffical" visit whereby they visited the Santo home anonymously on a Wednesday in October of 1997.
• an "official" visit when they met with Audrey's parents for a 'lengthy discussion, took pictures and observed Audrey for an extended period of time.'  For this visit, the two commision members were accompanied by Fr. Domenic and Dr. Madaline Morris, who identified herself as a "Jewish agnostic."  During this meeting Dr. Harding, Audrey's atteding physician, was aslo present who joined in the discussions along with Fr. John Foley, pastor of their local parish.
• they held another meeting at an office in Worcester with Audrey's parents
• on Good Friday of 1998, they spent the afternoon to observe events and interviewed Fr. George Joyce, a retired priest living in Springfield) and Dr. John Sears, a Catholic pyscologist, both of whom were family friends.  Ms. Monica Ferraro, a doctoral student of psychology at Clark University also attended and assisted in the investigative process.
• a day-long observation in April of the people and activities pertinent to the usual Wednesday activities.  This included being present two hours before the public was welcomed, remaining two hours following public visitation and spending the night, sleeping on the floor directly outside Audrey's room.\
• arranging for the visit of a senior clinician specializing in child and family psychopathology to attend the Wednesday activities
• a second meeting at the Worcester office to clarify some issues, in particular questions any "incidence in the family of mental illness, court involvement and any substance abuse."
• attendance at the August 9th anniversary event at the College of the Holy Cross in Worcester.
• "numerous telephone conversations with the Santo family."

Their report concludes with the following determinations regarding Audrey, her family and those involved then in the Apostolate of a Silent Soul.

"In summary, we have reached the following preliminary impression regarding our year long study of the penomena surrounding Audrey Santo: 1.) there appers to be an inexplicable occurence of organic oil of unknown type and human blood upon/from religious statues and pictures within the Santo home; 2.) we could identify no psychological factors or psychopathology which would account for these phenomena."
The report does make note that their many observations were not scientifically controlled nor was there any surveillance equipment involvement in their investigation, both methods that they recommended for a follow-up second inquiry.  Regarding the phenomena of spontaneous oil exuding from objects, they observed,
"While on a number of occasions we saw oil flowing, we could not say with certainty that the object we inspected was dry one moment and wet the next.  The objects which we had brought to the home were dry when placed on Audrey's bed but did begin to emit oil subsequently.  We had not, however, been present throughout the time that the objects apprarently accumulated oils on their surfaces."
Pursuant to this report, on January 21, 1999, Bishop Reilly made a public statement accompanied by an information sheet with questions and answers that was provided to all parishes and the Catholic faithful of the diocese.  This statement and the accompanying information sheet is available as a PDF in the documents to the left.  Most notably, the bishop acknowledges the extraordinary dedication of the family in caring for Audrey as a particular sign of the presence of God in the Santo home.  
The report encouraged the diocese to perform a second inquiry that would be more scientific in nature and provide data on Audrey's sensory awareness and ability to respond to stimuli and communicate;  that study was never initiated.