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POPE-JPII May-17-2006 (430 words) xxxi
Eight days before trip to Poland, Pope Benedict asks for prayers
By Cindy Wooden
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Eight days before beginning his pastoral visit to Poland, Pope Benedict XVI prayed that "the servant of God, John Paul II, will accompany us" during the trip.
Speaking in Polish during his May 17 general audience, the pope asked Polish pilgrims to pray that, "with the help of God's grace, we can build each other up in the witness of the faith."
As the process for the beatification and canonization of Pope John Paul continues, the official charged with coordinating the cause, Msgr. Slawomir Oder, released a testimonial from the French nun whose healing may be the miracle needed for beatification.
The Rome-based postulator has not released the nun's name or the name of her religious order, even though he was preparing to publish her account in the May edition of Totus Tuus, the monthly bulletin of the cause.
The Rome diocesan news bulletin, Roma Sette, published extracts from the nun's statement in mid-May while Totus Tuus was still at the printers.
Diagnosed in 2001 with Parkinson's disease, the same disease that afflicted Pope John Paul, the nun progressively worsened with uncontrollable tremors in her hand, muscular rigidity, constant pain and insomnia, Roma Sette said.
"Then came another blow: the feeling of a great void left by the death of John Paul II," the news bulletin said.
It quoted the nun as writing, "I lost the friend who understood me and who gave me the strength to go on. But I also had the certainty of his continuing presence."
When Pope Benedict announced May 13, 2005, that he was setting aside the five-year waiting period and would allow the late pope's canonization cause to begin immediately, the nun's religious order began a prayer chain both in France and in Africa.
Two months after Pope John Paul died, she said, she woke up in the middle of the night without pain and able to move easily.
The next day, the June 3 feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, she went to Mass and, she wrote, "leaving Mass I was certain I had been healed. My hand was no longer shaking."
According to Roma Sette, her neurologist confirmed that the symptoms of Parkinson's had disappeared.
"I seem to have been reborn," the nun wrote. "Today I can say that the friend who left our earth is now very close to my heart. That which the Lord has allowed me to experience through the intercession of John Paul II is a great mystery, difficult to explain with words."
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Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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