Vatican may have found Pope John Paul's 'miracle'

[emad]

Mon Jan 30, 2006 2:13 PM GMT
By Philip Pullella

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican may have found the "miracle" they need to put the late Pope John Paul one step closer to sainthood -- the medically inexplicable healing of a French nun with the same Parkinson's disease that afflicted him.

Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Catholic Church official in charge of promoting the cause to declare the late Pope a saint of the Church, told Reuters on Monday that an investigation into the healing had cleared an initial probe by doctors.

Oder said the "relatively young" nun, whom he said he could not identify for now, was inexplicably cured of Parkinson's after praying to John Paul after his death last April 2.

"I was moved," Oder said in a telephone interview. "To think that this was the same illness that destroyed the Holy Father and it also kept this poor nun from carrying out her work."

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-01-30T141316Z_01_L30552020_RTRUKOC_0_UK-POPE-MIRACLE.xml&archived=False

[emad]

1. Pope reaches out to lepers

January 30, 2006

BY FRANCES D'EMILIO


VATICAN CITY -- Pope Benedict XVI called on world leaders to unite in the fight against poverty Sunday and sent two doves flying into St. Peter's Square in a symbol of peace, continuing a tradition begun by his predecessor, John Paul II.

From his studio window overlooking the square, Benedict offered a special greeting to those who suffer from leprosy, a disfiguring condition that affects hundreds of thousands of people worldwide.

Noting that Sunday was World Day of Leprosy Sufferers, the pontiff encouraged missionaries, health care personnel and volunteers working in the field against the scourge.

Dove sticks with Benedict

''Leprosy is a symptom of a more serious and vaster ill, which is poverty,'' Benedict told pilgrims, tourists and a group of Italian Catholic children in the square.
http://www.suntimes.com/output/religion/cst-nws-pope30.html

[Goblinmonger]

2. Why doesn't he cure all Parkinsons?

Now that would be a miracle. Why just a woman that prayed to him? JPII doesn't seem like that kind of guy that would keep that to a small group.

Did they do a survey to see how many people with Parkinsons that prayed to him DIDN'T get cured? Make sure he is ahead of the curve?