Nun credits Pope John Paul for sudden healing

A French Catholic nun who said her Parkinson's disease disappeared after she prayed to the late Pope John Paul declined to call her restored health a miracle yesterday.

But she insisted: "I was ill and now I am healed." Sr Marie-Simon-Pierre, 46, told journalists she had suffered for four years and was about to quit work as a maternity ward supervisor in the southeastern city of Aix-en-Provence when she suddenly found her hand was calm enough to write clearly again.

Her recovery could be central to a drive to beatify Pope John Paul, putting him one step away from sainthood. The Catholic Church demands proof of a medically unexplained healing to give that honour and a second such case to declare him a saint.

Slightly nervous before a wall of cameras, Sr Marie-Simon-Pierre spoke glowingly of the late Polish Pontiff as an inspiration because of his very public suffering from Parkinson's before his death on April 2, 2005.

"All I can say is that I was ill and now I am healed," said the nun, who wore a white habit and veil with a black sweater and walked to and from the news conference with ease.

"It's up to the Church to say whether it was a miracle." She had no doubt about how she interpreted her recovery. "My healing was the work of God through the intercession of (Pope) John Paul," Sr Marie-Simon-Pierre said.

She said she and her fellow nuns had prayed to Pope John Paul for her recovery after his death and linked her healing on June 2, 2005, to him.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease that begins with tremors and poor balance.

Aix-en-Provence Archbishop Claude Feidt said he would hand over a thick volume of documents on the case to the Vatican on Monday, the second anniversary of Pope John Paul's death. Sr Marie-Simon-Pierre was due to accompany him.

Sr Marie-Simon-Pierre said her neurologist was astounded when he saw her walk into his office normally five days after her sudden change.

"He said, 'Sr, what have you done to get to be this way? Have you doubled your dose of dopamine?'," she recounted, referring to the medicine she was taking.