Road to Sainthood The Movement to Beatify Pope John Paul II Has Been Boosted by a French Nun's Claim That He Cured Her Parkinson's Disease, by Edward Pentin, Newsweek, March 31, 2007

Road to Sainthood
The Movement to Beatify Pope John Paul II Has Been Boosted by a French Nun's Claim That He Cured Her Parkinson's Disease

By Edward Pentin
Newsweek
March 31, 2007

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17887739/site/newsweek/

Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre at a news conference Friday
Photo by Serge Pagano / Reuters

It's been a highly guarded secret for the past year: the identity of a French nun said to have been miraculously cured through the intercession of the late Pope John Paul II. Now, though, the mystery is over.

Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, a nurse at the Sainte Felicite maternity hospital in Paris, decided to come clean on Friday with her remarkable story—a day after Le Figaro revealed her identity. Speaking to reporters from the headquarters of her religious order in Aix-en-Provence, southeast France, she said she was mysteriously cured of Parkinson's disease—literally overnight. If the church declares the cure a miracle, John Paul will very likely be beatified, or made "Blessed" in the coming years—a major step to sainthood. Roman Catholics place great importance on Blesseds and Saints because they believe they give glory to God and provide role-models for the faithful. Catholics also believe these men and women of holiness are confirmed in heaven, meaning that anyone can pray to them to intercede on their behalf.

For four years, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre said she had been suffering from the disease, a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative illness identical to the one that afflicted John Paul. Her symptoms had worsened to such an extent that, by 2005, she said, she was unable to fulfil her duties as a nurse of her order, the Little Sisters of Catholic Motherhood. "I was completely exhausted by the disease", she said. Meanwhile, her fellow sisters, both in France and Senegal, had been praying to the deceased pontiff that their suffering sister be cured.

By the summer of 2005, the nun said her symptoms had worsened further: she was unable to write legibly, nor walk or function properly. But the evening of June 2 seemed like any other. The sisters said their regular evening prayers after which the 46 year-old religious sister returned to her room. "It was between 9.30 and 9.45pm," she recalled. "I then felt the desire to pick up a pen and write. It was as if I heard a little voice say to me: 'Take your pen and write.'" And to her great astonishment, she said, "the writing was very legible".

Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre went to bed early, but by 4:30 am she was awake again, "amazed" she had been able to sleep. "I jumped straight out of bed, because my body was no longer rigid and painful. I was not the same as before." She then went straight to chapel where "a great peace" and a "sensation of well-being" enveloped her. "Since then I have not taken any treatment. My life has completely changed—it was like a second birth for me," she explained. "I was sick and now I am cured [but] it is up to the church to say whether it was a miracle or not."

To qualify as a miracle, the recovery must be sudden, complete and permanent as well as deemed inexplicable by doctors. This has been verified by three neurologists, two of whom are university professors and one of whom was her own physician, according to Reuters. Medical records, blood tests, X-rays and even the sister's handwriting were analyzed. The church also took the unprecedented step of placing the sister on a psychiatrist's couch. Monsignor Slawomir Oder, in charge of the beatification process, told a Rome press conference March 27 these extra steps were taken to be sure, and that the results were "very reassuring".

The news of Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre's alleged miracle comes as the first phase of John Paul's beatification process draws to a close. On April 2, the second anniversary of the Polish pontiff's death, an official announcement will declare that all the data testifying to the life, virtues and fame of sanctity of John Paul has been accumulated at a local level. That comprises two million testimonies from all over the world which now go to Rome for the final phase of the process. There, the documentation will be further examined by a variety of commissions, overseen by Portuguese Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

No one knows how long that process will take, but some church experts predict John Paul won't be beatified for at least three to four years. Like Mother Teresa of Calcutta, John Paul was exempted from the usual five-year waiting period before his beatification process could start. But even Mother Teresa, a woman of evident sanctity, was not made a "Blessed" until six years after her death. John Paul's beatification, however, is well on course and proceeding speedily, a little too fast for some who are concerned the usual rigorous procedures for assessing sanctity are being cast aside in favor of a "fast-track" to sainthood. Church officials deny the charge.

Once beatified, canonization—the making of a saint—comes next. That will take many years, probably decades, such is the slow and meticulous approach of the church. Canonization also requires a second miracle, although in the case of John Paul II, that may not be hard to find. Msgr. Oder reports 130 other possible, though unverified, miraculous healings, a fact that won't surprise fans of the late pontiff. After all, they say, there's a reason behind him being called John Paul "the Great."