Kody Watkins and Lee Diederichs hold items illustrating their family’s special miracle. Left to right, a photo of Benjamin Modzel, who was healed through Mother Durocher’s intercession in 1946; a framed picture of Modzel’s son and daughter-in-law, Robert and Lenora Modzel, meeting Pope John Paul II during their visit to Rome for Mother Durocher’s beatification; the rosary given to the Modzels by Pope John Paul II; a photo of Robert and Lenora Modzel with Fr. Angelus Mitri, OMI, postulator of Mother Durocher’s cause; a book on the life of Mother Durocher; and a framed relic of Mother Durocher.Allen Park — The Detroit man’s miraculous recovery happened back in 1946, but a few of his descendants are making sure the story of Blessed Mother Marie Rose Durocher’s miracle is not lost on people of the 21st century.
Lee Diederichs, in an interview with The Michigan Catholic, said her grandfather, Benjamin Modzel, an employee of International Detrola Corporation in Detroit, had always been a healthy man. However, while working near a loading dock the evening of July 11, 1946, he was accidentally pinned against a wall by a large truck going in reverse.
She said his entrapment by the truck lasted “several moments,” and by the time the truck driver was able to drive forward, Modzel had suffered “multiple endo-abdominal and skeletal fractures by squashing.”
Bleeding profusely, Modzel was rushed by ambulance to Detroit Receiving Hospital, and according to records was in critical condition. At 11 p.m. surgery began, which lasted about three hours, and revealed even more severe damage to his internal structures.
The doctors predicted the man had only a few hours to live due to the numerous issues, but most especially due to “scanty blood supply in the upper small bowel.” Relatives and his insurance company were informed of the unfortunate prognosis.
It was then that fellow Detrola employee Rose Marie Schnell requested a relic of then-Servant of God Mother Marie Rose Durocher of the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary from the sisters at St. Joachim’s Convent of Detroit.
The hospital’s chaplain, Fr. Daniel P. Dougherty, laid the relic on Modzel as the sisters and Modzel’s family prayed for a recovery through Mother Durocher’s intercession.
Modzel was released from the hospital after two weeks, and after two and a half months, returned to his job at International Detrola Corporation.
This later became the miracle that led to Pope John Paul II’s 1982 beatification of Blessed Mother Marie Rose Durocher, the step before declaring someone a saint of the Church.
Diederichs said she doesn’t remember her grandfather, who died in 1972, widely discussing the matter while she was growing up, but that her parents talked about him saying “to this day I don’t know how that happened, the Good Lord was definitely on my side.”
Her parents, Robert and Lenora Modzel, attended the beatification ceremony in Rome and met Pope John Paul II, who spoke with interest for several minutes with Robert Modzel, Diederichs recalls hearing.
Diederichs and her son, Kody Watkins, consider it crucial that the story of the miracle is known.
“Kody and I were talking about how bad it is nowadays,” Diederichs said. “And how there doesn’t seem to be any hope for anybody, you know? Kody said ‘Mom, if I wasn’t raised the way I was, I would be another statistic out there.’”
But, she added, it’s harder to settle for being a mere statistic when “all of this,” — Benjamin Modzel’s miraculous recovery — “is right in your face.”
Diederichs and Watkins, who are Lutheran, not Catholic, want to emphasize that this message of the power of prayer is for everyone.
“This affects everybody,” she said. “And I want them to know that. And I want anybody who has doubt to be able to see this and hear this and know that there is hope; that God’s out there.”
