For those who do not know about Lourdes, this is a village in the south of France, near Spain, where in 1858 the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernardette Soubirous (in the photo of the new of the Question, after doing her religious profession). These aparitions were approved by the Catholic church after very carefully process.

The Virgin Mary told of sinners and sicks, and in Lourdes they have occurred much conversions and curations after those events.

Agree with Humberto

I can not help much as I also do not believe in miracles.

He might have been physically cured but this miracle unfortunatly did not cure his eugenic conceptions where races have to be cleaned by preventing inferior, low class, representive to reproduce.  '' He was a regent for the French Foundation for the Study of Human Problems during Vichy France which implemented the eugenics policies there''

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Carrel

Each person is free. And every person is in totally free to choose their beliefs.

Actually my mother volunteered on one of those pilgrimages to Lourdes, as an aid. Years later, she took my two brothers and me on a one-day trip there, as grade school age children, during our summer vacation.

Perhaps an interesting research study would be to see if there is any statistical correlation between pilgrimages to Lourdes and surprising "spontaneous" cures, compared with the average, or compared with other similar religious sites.

Here's a recent book (for a fee - I haven't read it).

http://rd.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01569027

This is the intro:

http://rd.springer.com/journal/11126/18/1/page/1#page-1

And these others:

http://noetic.org/research/projects/spontaneous-remission/faqs

https://www.uthealthleader.org/story/mind-over-matter

These phenomena are not unknown, in short. Nor are conversions to Catholicism or to other faiths.

A miracle is something, in this instance, that the current medical state of the art does not fully explain. So back to my main point. Religion attributes these events to a supernatural power. Medical science must instead look for more earthly explanations, in the hopes of developing repeatable cures. Whether the supernatural explanation is true or not cannot be used as an excuse to stop the research. This point is critically important, in my opinion. There would otherwise be the urge, a well-known urge among the religiously devout, to forego medicine entirely.

From the question. I note 3 points:

• Everyone should have a basic right to uphold his/her religious beliefs, and this includes conversion.  
• Medical sciences would do better if it does not depend on funding from rich pharmaceutical companies.
• Let us be open, and evaluate matters with our brains and hearts!

Because of a miracle and faith, there are many 

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/the-miracle-that-led-obi-wan-kenobi-to-convert-to-catholicism-61901/

Dear Albert,

The curations were a sign of Jesus Christ, as one can read in the authentic Gospels. For this reason much Jews and others believed in Jesus. These curations were not circumstantial or casualities, but an impront for which Jesus had many disciples, and not only curations, but multiplications of breads and fishes for food of his followers, miraculous fisheries, conversion of water in wine, resurrections of deads, he walk over the water of a lake a distance of several stadiums, he calmed a storm with his word at the moment, etc.

If one event occurs we could think in a casuality, but as much joined casualities already it is not casuality but a real extraordinary success. Jesus told about these miracles of him as a proof of that He was and is Son of God and his envoy. And his mother Mary had and we believe she has much power before his Son when she asks something to Jesus.

In Legnica (Poland) the Church has approved recently an Eucharist miracle. I adjunt a new of this event (in Spanish).

http://infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=26451

Alexis Carrel can have other life before his conversion, but after it he was a fervient believer and I think he did not turn to an anterior life without faith.

Dear Prof. Ruiz Espejo,

Thank you for your invitation.

This conversion is another strong sign, among many, of God to humans.

Regards

The conversion is caused by the action of God, trough the Virgen Mary.

Dear Albert and Brenda,

The work that God likes for us to do the God facts is to believe in Jesus, to whom God sent. For this, the science should not stop our work of believing in Jesus because this is the true work that God likes for us, the persons.

Dear Mariano,

But this always comes back to the point I made some time ago, on a similar thread. Where is the independent verification? Do we have non-religious historians documenting these events? The existence of Jesus of Nazareth is in some independent historical records, but aside from that, all of the accounts of miracles and supernatural powers are in the same book. See this:

http://www.josephus.org/testimonium.htm

(I'm sure you already know what is in that link, but others might not.)

And even if some of these detailed events, including miracle cures, were described independently, which they are not, we still wouldn't be sure. As I showed you in my previous post, spontaneous cures, some assisted by the patient's mental state, are known to occur. Even among non-Catholics.

People used to think that thunder was created by one angry god, that rough seas were created by another angry god, and even solar eclipses were created by a third angry god. In time, we have come to learn that none of that's true.

Or let me be even more precise. There may even be some angry gods involved to create these natural phenomena, and science cannot verify that, but we do know now why the phenomena exist. So if someone insists up and down that these gods are creating the bad weather or solar eclipses, and all I'm doing is explaining how they do so, well, not much you can argue with such an individual, right? Science studies the natural universe. The supernatural, by definition, is out of scope of science.

When you cite Catholic doctrine, you are citing Catholic doctrine. It's a matter of faith.

In my opinion, "religious certainty" can, and demonstrably it does (there should be no need to state the obvious), create untold problems in our world today. It has for centuries and even millennia, but with today's machines and weapons, it can become particularly lethal. So to me, people ought to have a modicum of doubt in these matters, for the benefit of all of mankind.

Dear Albert,

I think as you in some things you say, but I must say that the faith is not illusion, the faith is based on facts and testimonies transmitted in the Church which is very interested in transmit the truth in its tradition, this is the unique way, say the truth in the Church. But of other independent viewpoints, why should I believe in them if previously some of them slight the truth and the Church? What necessity do we have of false testimonies or others without any compromise with the truth?

And one of the first facts transmitted by the Church is the commandment of God, the first one according to the Jew-Christian religions: "You will love to God over all the things". If the science is a thing, we must love to God over the science which is a human form. Moses told clearly of do not serve to idols or gods (as science could be) but only to God (our Father). Jesus confirmed this appreciation.

Thomas: "Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe." (v.25)

But when Jesus appeared later and invited Thomas to touch his wounds and behold him, Thomas showed his belief by saying, "My Lord and my God". (v.28)

Jesus then said, "Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed [are] they that have not seen, and [yet] have believed." (v.29)

Searching for miracles is searching for proofs but Jesus said to Thomas: ''blessed [are] they that have not seen, and [yet] have believed." 

Dear Louis,

Certainly, the true believer does not need a proof of God in each moment of the life. This would be as a temptation of the devil.

For this, when a scientific asks repetitive signs of God as if God would be experimentable, I think they do not know his will. He could say: "why did you not believe in the testimonies of my disciples?" or, "you will not receive other sign that the one of Jonas".

Carrell's book 'A travel to Lourdes' explains the steps of conversion : and the 'physical evidence' of the miracle is only the 'small flame that initiates the big fire' .. Alexis is deeply uncomfortable by his distance from God and when the process starts (and HAD TO START FROM MATERIAL EVIDENCE, AFTER ALL HE WAS A SCIENTIST !!!) it progressively enlarges to 'restructure' all his internal 'network of relations' making him to recover the integrity of the picture....it is the inextricable link so weel described by the old dictum:

Intelligo ut credam, credo ut intelligam

Dear Alessandro,

Before an evidence, one cannot sincerely do other thing that believe in the evidence. But much people believe in Jesus and Mary without in person evidences, and these, who believed in Jesus as God without having seen, were called blessed ("dichosos", in Spanish) by resurrected Jesus as evidence before his disciples or apostles.

Alexis Carrel was a prominent Nobel Price so we are still talking about a man who supported the use of gasses for eliminating the "defectives" and endorsed scientific racism discourse. By collaborating with the nazi he finally showed by which ingredients his catholic feelings were made.

We can judge a tree by its fruits.  Carrel was a bright medical scientists but he demonstrated that he did not care for all humans.  His fruits were not those of a christian.  A christian care for those most in need.  In the same years that great scientist Carrel converted to catholism, another great philosopher, Bergson who was a catholic in his heart of jewish origin decided not converting in order to be with those that suffer the most.  He was the true christian.

"My reflections have led me closer and

closer to Catholicism, in which I see the complete

fulfilment of Judaism. (2) I would have become a

convert, had I not foreseen for years a formidable

wave of anti-Semitism about to break upon the

world (this, unfortunately, being due to the errors

of some Jews completely devoid of a moral

sense). (3) I wanted to remain among those who

tomorrow were to be persecuted. (4) I do,

however, hope that a Catholic priest may agree to

come, provided the cardinal bishop of Paris gives

his consent, and say the prayers at my funeral.

(5) In the case that such consent is not given, a

rabbi is to be approached without, however,

keeping my moral adherence to Catholicism and

my expressed wish for a Catholic priest to pray at

my funeral secret from him nor from anybody

else."  Bergson

I think we must learn of the good passes of a person, and not be exponent of preceeding bad passes of him/her. We could think in St. Paul, St. Mary Magdalene, etc.

The beauty is in their conversions and after it, and never in the preceeding sins before their conversions. I see bad taste in recreating the bad moments of the life of other and when we are not with joy for correcting their lifes according to the God will.

The posed question is " What you think of the conversion to Catholicism of Alexis Carrell?" My reply is : since I don't recognize any catholic principle in his thought and behaviour, I would simplify the question as " What do you think of Alexis Carrel?" or even better: " What do you think about people who actively made propaganda of nazi principles?" Beside that I don't know if Dr. Carrel never repented or asked for forgiveness.

The sad thing is that almost the entire scientific community before

The second world war had thesame racist ideas they considered

Totally rational even after the war eugenetic lawa were ptrsent

In sweden until the seventies in Usa Virginia stopped eugenics

Law in 1979 Roman Catholic Church in the thirties wasconsidetedre medieval

Because considered these ideas as pure evil. THUS SIMPLY UNDER

THIS ASPECT CARREL WAS A SCIENTIST OF HIS TIMES..this should

Push us to deeply reconsider what we intend for progressism

Dear Maurizio,

I understand that a conversion implies to leave all type of sins, at least with a sincere desire and with this intention and purpose.

Alexis Carrel was baptized in the Catholic Church after seeing a curation in Lourdes. This, his baptism, is a proof of his conversion.

The believers in miracles accept them (rightly or wrongly) because they have evidence for them. The disbelievers in miracles deny them (rightly or wrongly) because they have a doctrine against them.

- G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

The true miracle, in my opinion, is to receive the faith as strengh to change your life in according to. I am sure that everybody agree that the conversion of Saint Augustine was sincere and not linear, it was based on a severe initiation to christianity and was deep and durable until the end. Also  pagans believe on miracles. For example the Druids. They committed human sacrifice and perhaps even cannibalism.

As a child, the miracles of Jesus in the Gospels were really capturing my attention and really important for putting my faith in Jesus.  But as a grew up, the miracles of Jesus did not attract my attention anymore.  It is the message of Jesus that I found important because it provides a solid moral foundation for my life.  I only find the miracle part usefull for educating christian children.  As adult, I don't need it.  I simply don't care about that.  True, untrue, I don't care.  It is totally irrelevant to me.

I do not believe in all type of miracles, but I believe in Jesus and the Father for their miracles too.

Dear Louis,

If you are sick without help and ask to Jesus your curation and he would do it, do you think that your curation by the intervention of Jesus is not important for you?

Adults were who believed in Jesus for their curations before Jesus. For the message of Jesus these curations are a sign of his divinity, of being the Father in him and acting before the eyes of disciples, sicks and others. These miracles are proof of his divinity because there was not any person that could do the same things as Jesus in his time and in this time.

And children were curated by Jesus, for example, the daughter of Jairo who was resurrected by Jesus, or the sick son (epileptic) of a father with weak faith.

As in all sincere and free conversion, I congratulate to Alexis and his family.

But baptism does not guarantee the perseverance in the conversion, and this is what saves our souls, to follow with faith and believe with perseverance.

He was touched by the Grace of the Lord, who made him saw the light.

As he's no longer among us to discuss the issue, the subject may be a bit too speculative, a rule in Canonic Law, I guess, told: 'De internis, necque Eclessia'. 'Not even the Church can issue an opinion about the mind and motivations of persons'

Regards, + Salut

To Mariano: yes, baptism gives salvation, but those who don't love the Lord would sin, losing it

To Maurizio: it was reported that cannibalism was practiced around year zero in what is called today: 'Ile de France', Romans spoke about: 'Tutatis/ Taranis' as a bloody idol, 'Caribe' islanders were cannibals upon the arrival of Spaniards there, also some Amazonian tribes, and descriptions of hip joint anatomy in old classical Greek works are considered an evidence of cannibalism.

Today, some may be practicing it in certain African places, not for food, as in very old times, but for the magic purpose of acquiring the qualities of the person eaten; a priest who was an student in La Sorbonne, who had the habit of making quotations from socialist and anarchist authors, pointed right that the Holy Communion is exactly cannibalism, with the goal of acquiring the qualities of Jesus. 

Conversion to Catholicism does not mean "perseverance in Catholicism" as Jesus said as a secure way to eternal salvation of the soul.

The words of resurrected Jesus were: "Who believes and is baptized will be saved." The baptism alone without true faith does not save necessarily according to Jesus words.

Jn 1, 18; Mt 19, 25-26; Mt 23, 9 

You'd,like tthe texts by Jan van Ruysbroek, and also the: 'Treaty on Prayer and Meditation', by fr. Luis of Granada, and saint Peter of Alcantara

Did Alexis Carrel write much about his own spiritual life?

I've read only: 'Man, the unknown'

Regards, + Salud

Dear Joe,

I have read some articles about the life of Alexis Carrel in www.es.Catholic.net but I do not pretend to make a judge about but some related reflections.

The photo of the link in the Question has been changed after the canonization of Saint Therese of Calcutta several days ago. This saint was elevated to the saintity after the comprobation of two miracles, very similar to the ones happened in Lourdes, for her intercession.

It is not necessary to be Nobel laureate to discover that we are in hands of God as creator and Who mantains all the life in this world with His natural laws. A recuperation of a sickness was motive of conversion to God in times of Jesus and in all times.

I fully agree.My Architectonic Philosophy-written in German-also deals with this topic.

These experiences have occurred with Jesus. One can read in the Gospel that after a curation to a blind, the blind kneels down before Jesus and said: "I believe, Lord."

What it is sure is that the conversion is the way of all believer. The Pope Francis said yesterday that we need conversion to enter in the Kingdom of God.

http://infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=27943

A Novel laureate is not a condition to enter in the Kingdom of God, but working with attention in His Kingdom would be a condition to be apt for this Kingdom of God.

As all conversion to Catholicism, I think it is a great joy in the heaven.

Other Nobel laureate in Medicine (in 2000), Arvid Carlsson, says that to believe in God is in the genes.

http://infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=28234

It is not necessary to be Nobel laureate to believe and be peaceful in the life after a personal meeting with the Lord. This is a shared experience for many persons.

This is an article about the life of Alexis Carrel.

http://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/62999/la-ciencia-y-la-fe-se-encontraron-a-los-pies-de-la-virgen-alexis-carrel.html

As in all conversion to the truth, there is joy of recognizing the power and the love of God with us.

There is to be as a child for a conversion.

A conversion is an open door to the practice of virtues which are appreciate by many people.

As in all true conversion without physical coaction, consolation by the evidence of the truth.

As in all sincere conversion to Catholicism, I remove me the hat.

A cured illness is a source of blessings of God, and one cannot do other thing that recognize his love and our acceptation of it.

Holy Week is time of conversion to the Lord.

Many important persons have been converted to Catholicism. Here there is a sample of them.

http://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/65178/30-personajes-ilustres-del-siglo-xx-que-se-convirtieron-al-catolicismo

Other group of Protestants converted to Catholicism.

http://infocatolica.com/blog/archipielago.php/1704281017-pentecostales-cruzando-el-tib

Speaking about Nobel laureates it will be fair to mention Prof Georges Lemaître. Father Prof Georges Lemaître was a Belgian Catholic Priest, astronomer and professor of physics at the Catholic University of Leuven. He was the first to derive what is now known as Hubble's law and made the first estimation of what is now called the Hubble constant, which he published in 1927, two years before Hubble's article. According to Sidney van den Bergh (2011) cit. “The 1927 discovery of the expansion of the Universe by Lemaitre was published in French in a low-impact journal. In the 1931 high-impact English translation of this article a critical equation was changed by omitting reference to what is now known as the Hubble constant. That the section of the text of this paper dealing with the expansion of the Universe was also deleted from that English translation suggests a deliberate omission by the unknown translator.” Please open the link: https://arxiv.org/abs/1106.1195  and also, please see the whole paper under the following link: https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1106/1106.1195.pdf. Thank you. 

A true conversion saves to the converse, because words of Jesus were that "who believes and is baptized will be saved".

Many believers in Jesus went believers by the curations and miracles of the Lord as the true Gospel narrates.

A change from skepticism to sincere joy.

Pray for the conversion of a sinner is heard by God always.

Where there is not conversion, there is abandon in mediocrities.

This is the history of a Venezolean physician that was cured by the Virgin of Fatima, and his conversion.

http://infocatolica.com/?t=noticia&cod=29363

Other curation by the Virgin of Fatima was of Father Pio Pietrelcina, in 1959. In this case the Father was converted already.

http://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/65355/cuando-la-virgen-de-fatima-curo-al-padre-pio.html

They are testimonies of the greatness of the faith in God, Jesus and in his Mother Mary of Fatima.

This is other new of the conversion of Jesse Smith after reading the Catholic Bible.

http://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/65412/alguien-se-hace-catolico-despues-de-leerse-la-biblia-toda-entera-si-este-chico-de-21-anos

Other example of conversion to Catholic from Lutheran and Anglican.

http://www.religionenlibertad.com/luterano-militar-capellan-anglicano-hoy-cura-catolico--56849.htm

Four examples of conversion from Anglicanism to Catholicism.

http://www.religionenlibertad.com/de-como-una-defensora-de-la-ordenacion-de-las-mujeres-dejo-40778.htm

http://www.religionenlibertad.com/de-diaconisa-anglicana-a-catolica-evangelizadora-hoy-difunde-la-espiritualidad-de-39625.htm

http://www.religionenlibertad.com/el-pater-tiene-6-hijos-era-anglicano-y-se-convirtio-en-33980.htm

http://www.religionenlibertad.com/era-misionero-anglicano-su-viaje-al-catolicismo-empezo-con-una-senal-31284.htm

The most famous examples of an Irish person converting from Protestantism to Catholicism is Blessed Fr. John Sullivan SJ. and the Venerable Mother Catherine Elizabeth McAuley, and more recently the 7th Earl of Longford.

https://frjohnsullivan.ie/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catherine_McAuley

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Pakenham,_7th_Earl_of_Longford

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Sullivan_(Jesuit)

The continuous return to Catholicism is a proof of its veracity over other types of interests.

After a hard experience of being in error, there is a great joy of encountering the correct way of conversion to the truth.

C. S. Lewis, a conversion from Atheism to Catholicism.

http://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/10179/c-s-lewis.html

Other conversion because "he likes to be in the correct place with the correct people."

http://www.religionenlibertad.com/bautiza-los-anos-porque-dice-que-quiere--56891.htm

"The conversion and the persevernace are the graces of My Mercy" (Words of Jesus in the Diary of Saint Faustine, 1577).

Resurrected Jesus is in mortal sadness for the lossness of human souls that go to hell. There is more joy in the heavens for a converted sinner that for 99 just people who do not need conversion.

Conversion with pray and penitence are the message for us of the Virgin Mary in her apparitions in Lourdes (1858) and Fatima (1917).

"Why did I convert me to Catholicism?" By G. K. Chesterton.

http://es.catholic.net/op/articulos/58945/porqu-me-convert-al-catolicismo.html

I think that conversion requires humility, free will, and to entry in reason. All of them are qualities of an intelligent person.

There are many conversions after suffering disease and being cured. Why has the pain such power?

Conversion and sanation is what the world needs.

http://www.forumlibertas.com/conversion/

The last table of salvation for all sinner is the confidence in the Divine Mercy.

Without true conversion one can be an easy victim of the evil.

Eugene Zolli was a converse from Judaism to Catholicism.

http://www.es.catholic.net/op/articulos/60029/-eugenio-zolli-la-conversin-del-gran-rabino-de-roma.html

I think that the honour received by a wise man entering in the Catholic church is high and superior to human wisdom.

The Baptism is a sacrament for which one is received in the Catholic church and adquires the divine filiation, he/she is son/daughter of God now once he/she is baptized. The Baptism is as the entry door but into one can find the community and the grace in his/her way, one prays and does good facts as God and Jesus like, in their Spirit of truth and love.

It is necessary conversion to be baptized and also for perseverating in the true faith.

A wise man/woman needs to apply his/her knowledge, freedom and reasonning in his/her beliefs until a true own conversion.

Communist leaders as Gramsci (Italy) and Fidel Castro (Cuba) coincide in their conversion to Catholicism before their death.

http://www.es.catholic.net/op/articulos/10165/gramsci-fundador-del-pc-italiano-abraz-el-catolicismo-antes-de-morir.html

The Roman emperor Constantine was voluntarily converted and was baptized by the bishop of Bizance (Constantinople after), Eusebio, in the four or five century.

I think that conversion to the truth of God is the first step for eternal salvation.

Other Spanish Communist leader converted to Catholicism was Dolores Ibárruri.

More of 4.500 adult French people were baptized Catholic in Easter, about 200 from Islamism.

http://www.religionenlibertad.com/mas-4500-franceses-adultos-bautizan-pascua-mitad-56291.htm

From Hinduism to Catholicism: his hife prayed for him 20 years.

http://www.religionenlibertad.com/mujer-rezo-durante-anos-por-conversion-hindu-55943.htm

The medics conversion is always a hope for patients.