Some doubts arise concerning the miracle attributed to John Paul II

The Polish and Italian press mentioned, on March 4 and 5, the doubts concerning the unexplained recovery of a French religious, that had served as the miracle that would allow the beatification of John Paul II.  Jean-Marie Guénois, in the March 5 edition of The Figaro, explains that it was the comments of Polish neurologist Grzegorz Opala that were at the origin of these doubts.  In the Polish paper Rzeczpospolita the doctor recalls that while Parkinson disease is incurable, certain other diseases – that present the same symptoms – are curable. These Parkinson-like symptoms can appear after a trauma or a poisoning and disappear once the patient stops taking medicine.  He hopes that the seven doctors of the Vatican commission in charge of examining the case of the French nun will not neglect this possibility.

Sister Marie Simon-Pierre of the congregation of the Petites Sœurs des Maternités Catholiques claimed to have recovered from the Parkinson disease without any medical explanation in the beginning of June 2005, two months after the death of the Polish pope.  At the Vatican, authorized sources deny that the miracle was rejected, adding that experts are even now examining it.  Apparently, one of the doctors of the commission has voiced some doubts and requested a more thorough examination.  The Bishops' Conference of France also wished to respond with a “categorical denial” to the rumor that claims that the medical commission of the Congregation of the Causes of Saints had rejected this miracle.  In a note published the evening of March 10, 2010 in the name of the Petites Sœurs des Maternités Catholiques and of the Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence, Fr. Luc-Marie Lalanne, Chancellor to the Archbishop of Aix-en-Provence (France), maintains that “Sister Marie Simon-Pierre is still in perfect health even to this day”. “As the Vatican press-room has recently declared,” continues the note, “the Roman trial of this presumably miraculous healing is only in its initial phase and will continue its development under the normal conditions, with the seriousness and precision required by the preliminary investigations for the recognition of a miracle”.

Msgr. Slawomir Oder, postulator for Karol Wojtyla's cause, does not plan to make a declaration to the press. Nor does Angelo Zemma, spokesman of the Vicariate of Rome.

(Sources: apic/imedia/Le Figaro/rp.pl/cef – DICI n°212, March 20, 2010)