Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, a French nun, claims that she was suddenly cured of Parkinson’s disease after praying to the late Pope John Paul II. According to the nun, her symptoms disappeared after a night of prayer in 2005. Although what happened to her could be attributed to a miracle, Sister Marie says she left it up to the Catholic Church to decide. Pope John Paul II died on April 2, 2005, also of Parkinson’s disease.
He was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2001 and over time his symptoms worsened. Everyday tasks that used to be easy became increasingly difficult for her. She could no longer drive and walking takes a lot of effort.
Sister Marie is a member of the congregation, Little Sisters of Catholic Maternities. Her healing occurred on the night of June 2, 2005. It was precisely 2 months after the death of Pope John Paul. She had just finished evening prayers and as she was alone in her room, she suddenly felt the need to write. And for the first time since her illness, she could read her handwriting. She then went to bed and when she woke up the next morning, she felt completely ‘transformed’. “I realized that my body was no longer the same and I was convinced that I was cured,” she says. Since that morning Sister Marie had not taken any medication.
Sister Marie’s healing, if finally accepted by the church as a valid miracle, may pave the way for the beatification of Pope John Paul II. In Catholicism, beatification is an acknowledgment that a particular dead person is now in heaven and can therefore intercede on behalf of living people who pray to him. Beatification is the last step towards canonization, by which the canonized person can now be called and prayed as a ‘saint’. After beatification, the person is simply called ‘blessed’. The veneration towards a blessed is usually restricted to a particular locality, while the veneration towards a saint is universal.
For a deceased person to be accepted for beatification, the validity of a miracle must be proven and it must have occurred through the intercession of the person to be beatified. This requirement of a miracle does not apply to those who have died as martyrs. Canonization, on the other hand, requires one more miracle attributed to the intercession of the person already beatified.
It should be noted, however, that the canonization process or ceremony does not make someone a saint. What the ceremony does is simply formally declare that the person who has just been canonized is a saint and was a saint even before the canonization. The Catholic Church therefore recognizes that there are many more (uncountable, perhaps) saints in heaven than have been canonized on earth.