Sainthood a step closer for Pope John Paul II

VATICAN CITY – Catholic Church officials reach a key milestone in the drive to make Pope John Paul II a saint today, closing an investigation into his life and handing over a dossier detailing the purported miraculous cure of a nun who prayed to him.

The events come two years to the day after John Paul died – a remarkably fast pace that underscores the church’s keen interest in beatifying John Paul and responding to the calls of “Santo Subito” or “Sainthood Immediately!” that erupted after his death.

Pope Benedict XVI put John Paul on the fast track for possible sainthood just weeks after his April 2, 2005, death, when he waived the customary five-year waiting period and allowed the investigation into his predecessor’s virtues to begin immediately.

Such a waiver had only been granted once before, to Mother Teresa.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Polish prelate who is spearheading the beatification cause, acknowledged recently that his probe was completed unusually quickly – particularly considering the vast amount of material that had to be collected.

About 130 people were interviewed, historians gathered books about John Paul from libraries around the globe, and theologians studied his private writings to determine if he ever wrote anything heretical.

Critics also had a voice, although Oder said the vast majority of the criticism was not against John Paul as a person but against some aspect of his teachings or church doctrine. “To tell the truth, this doesn’t weigh heavily on the merit of the process itself,” he said.

John Paul’s cause has been bolstered by the testimony of a French nun, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, who says she was cured of Parkinson’s disease after she and her fellow sisters prayed to the late pope.

The nun, 46, emerged from secrecy last week, telling a news conference in France that she felt reborn when she woke up two months after John Paul died, cured of the disease that the pope himself had lived with.