A second miracle attributed to Blessed Pope John Paul II is being investigated by the Vatican, according to Italian media reports.
No details have emerged about the healing, reports of which have been sent to the Congregation for the Cause of Saints, but it is said to have occurred weeks after John Paul II’s beatification on May 1 last year, which was attended by over a million people.
The first miracle attributed to the late pope was the healing of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, who recovered from Parkinson’s disease.
The second alleged miracle was chosen from among four reported miracles and documented by the promoter of Karol Wojtyła’s canonisation, Bishop Slowomir Oder, according to Italy’s Panorama magazine.
Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi declined to comment on the report, stressing that only a decree from the saints’ congregation could confirm it. Benedict XVI began the beatification process in May 2005, citing “exceptional circumstances” that meant the usual five year waiting period could be waived.
In November 2009 the congregation voted unanimously that John Paul II had lived a life of virtue, and the following month Pope Benedict signed the declaration that recognised that John Paul II had lived a “heroic, virtuous life”.
Reports by medical and legal experts on the case of Sister Marie were submitted to the dicastery for examination the following October and were recognised as a miracle in January 2011.
Sister Marie was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2001 and by 2005 was rapidly deteriorating, unable to write and barely able to drive. She described hearing the news of John Paul’s death as like the “world caving in”.
A cure arrived a few weeks after her fellow Sisters began to pray for her cure through the intercession of John
Paul II.
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