Pope a step away from being beatified

Pope Benedict XVI's predecessor, Pope John Paul II, is a step closer to being beatified by the Roman Catholic Church after a French nun said that she was inexplicably and suddenly 'cured' of Parkinson's disease.

Sister Marie Simon–Pierre stopped short of declaring her recovery a miracle, saying that was for the church to decide. But she said her life had "totally changed" since her symptoms vanished in 2005.

"John Paul II cured me," Sr. Simon–Pierre said, March 30, smiling serenely as she spoke for the first time in public about her experience.

"It is difficult for me to explain to you in words. ... It was too strong, too big. A mystery," she said.

"Please excuse me. I'm a little emotional," she said, adding that it was "for the church to say" whether it was a miracle. "All I can tell you is that I was sick, and now I am cured," she said.

"For me, it is a bit like a second birth," the nun whose identity was long kept secret till recently said. The 46–year–old, speaking in a clear, poised voice, said she was diagnosed with Parkinson's in 2001.

Her symptoms worsened with time: driving became practically impossible, she had difficulty walking, and her left arm hung limply at her side.

She also could no longer bear to see John Paul on television, because he, too, was stricken more seriously with the disease. When seeing him, "I saw myself in the years to come," she said.

Her cure came on the night of June 2, 2005, exactly two months after the pontiff's death, she said. In her room after evening prayers, she said an inner voice urged her to take up her pen and write.

She did, and was surpassed to see that her handwriting — which had grown illegible because of her illness was clear. She said she then went to bed, and woke early the next morning feeling "completely transformed."

"I realised that my body was no longer the same," she said. "I was convinced that I was cured." She said that has not taken medicine since.

Though some of her colleagues in the church were still reluctant to talk much about her.

But Father Robert Aliger, a spokesman for the Diocese of Aix–en–Provence, described a humble nun who went through an "incredible" experience – an unexplained recovery from Parkinson's after she and her community of nuns prayed to Pope John Paul II.

"All those that knew her before and after see clearly that she is cured," he said in a telephone interview.

The diocese in southeastern France finished its yearlong investigation into the nun's claims and will present its conclusions in Rome.

Its investigation was based on medical records, blood–test results, X–rays and doctors' reports, "so that the bishop can present a solid dossier in Rome," Fr. Aliger said.

"It's a voluminous dossier," he said. "There are five boxes – I saw them – of originals and a big box of X–rays."

The nun "had tears in her eyes" at the closing session of the investigation, he added.

"She is a gentle, reserved woman," he said. "She is a very simple, very ordinary person who is, I think, deeply moved by what happened to her."

The nun also underwent a psychiatric evaluation and had her handwriting analyzed, since a change in handwriting is a classic symptom of Parkinson's disease, the Rome–based cleric spearheading her cause, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, said.

Normally, psychiatric evaluations are not typical for church investigations into purported miracles, but Oder said that church officials wanted to be sure in this case and the results were "very reassuring."

Only one document about the nun's experience has been made public: an article she wrote for "Totus Tuus," the official magazine of Pope John Paul II's beatification case.

She wrote of being diagnosed with Parkinson's in June 2001 and having a strong spiritual affinity for John Paul II because he suffered from the disease; her symptoms worsened in the weeks after the Pope died on April 2, 2005.

Exactly two months after his death, on June 2, 2005, the nun said she could bear her worsening illness no more. She told her mother superior that she could no longer do her job at a maternity ward near Aix–en–Provence in southern France.

The mother superior told the nun to write down Pope John Paul II's name on a piece of paper. She did – and it was practically illegible, the nun said.

The Little Sisters of Catholic Maternities, the nun's community, all prayed together to the late pontiff. After evening prayers, she went to her room. There, she said, an inner voice urged her to write again.

"I wrote a little bit, and, upon seeing my handwriting, I said to myself, 'That's strange. Your writing is very readable,'" she said.

She went to sleep and woke about 4:30 in the morning.

"I bounded out of bed, and I felt completely transformed. I was no longer the same inside," she said. To a fellow nun, she said, "Look, my hand is no longer shaking. John Paul II has cured me."

The nun is a member of the Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Motherhood.

The nun will attend a ceremony in Rome on April 2, the anniversary of Pope John Paul's death, marking the close of the investigation into the pope's life that has been carried out by the diocese of Rome as part of the Roman Catholic Church's saint–making process.

The Vatican's saint–making process requires that Pope John Paul's life and writings be studied for its virtues. The Vatican also requires that a miracle attributed to his intercession be confirmed, before he can be beatified the last formal step before possible sainthood.

Pope Benedict XVI announced in May 2005 that he was waiving the traditional five–year waiting period and allowing the beatification process to begin.