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:
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.