Nun has key role in John Paul II beatification plan

PARIS -- Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre is the French nun whose testimony of a mystery cure from Parkinson's disease will likely be accepted as the miracle the Vatican needs to beatify Pope John Paul II, an official at the Paris maternity hospital where she works said yesterday.

The identity of the nun has been one of the Catholic Church's most closely guarded secrets. The nun says that she was cured of Parkinson's after she and her community of nuns prayed to John Paul.

The nun, a member of the Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Motherhood in Aix-en-Provence in southeast France, works at the Sainte-Felicite hospital in Paris, the official said on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was expected Sunday.

In Rome, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Polish cleric spearheading John Paul's beatification cause, said the bishop in the woman's diocese would announce details about her case during his Palm Sunday Mass this weekend.

French newspaper Le Figaro, in an unsourced report late yesterday on its website, first identified the nun by name, saying she was 45 years old.

The nun is traveling to Rome for ceremonies Monday marking the second anniversary of the pontiff's death and the closure of a church investigation into his life which began after chants of "Santo Subito!" or "Sainthood Now!" erupted during John Paul's 2005 funeral.

The Vatican's saint-making process requires that 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.

The nun wrote of being diagnosed with Parkinson's in June 2001, having a strong spiritual affinity for John Paul because he too suffered from the disease, and suffering worsened symptoms in the weeks after the pope died on April 2, 2005. Two months after the pontiff's death, she awoke in the night cured, she wrote.