Hatem, Wolpert, and Patmore researched various supernatural and religious folklore and found that most of those types of encounters could "find a nexis in ["Miracles"], and could do all kinds of stories". The three also agreed that "["Miracles" could not be a show about the Catholic Church [...] ABC was not interested in taking that on". Hatem referenced in the "Miracles" DVD interview a short-lived series that aired on ABC during the 1997–98 season called "Nothing Sacred", which centered on the Catholic Church in the 1970s. While the show's main character was raised with a Catholic upbringing, Hatem did not want to make the series about a "Vatican conspiracy". Hatem did however acknowledge that the pilot episode transitioned from religious phenomena to paranormal phenomena, and that the transition between "'religion' and 'general paranormal' a huge challenge all the way through, because the questions kept coming back: 'Is this guy a priest?'; 'How do we explain he's not a priest?'; 'How do we explain that his points of view are not the points of view of the Catholic Church?'". Hatem also acknowledged that as they were preparing to "sell a show whose pilot has priests, and a monsignor", the Church was in the midst of a sex abuse scandal that was being reported in newspapers all over the country. Hatem recalled that "the joke was, 'show wasn't on the air long enough to generate controversy'; we would have "loved" controversy, but we flew so low under the radar that I don't think anyone had a chance to be offended or even construe a way to take offense".