MIRACLE REPORTED; COULD SPEED JOHN PAUL'S CANONIZATION

Rome, Nov. 30 (CWNews.com) - The inexplicable healing of a French nun could be the miracle that paves the way for beatification of Pope John Paul II.

The Roman news agency I Media has learned that a French nun who was dying of cancer experienced a sudden and complete cure in October, after the members of her community prayed for the intercession of the late Pope John Paul. In accordance with Vatican rules, the identity of the nun is not being revealed, as doctors conduct a thorough study of her case. If a miracle is confirmed, it would speed the cause for the Polish Pontiff's beatification.

During a visit to Rome on November 29, Archbishop Stanislas Dziwisz, the longtime secretary to the late Pope, confirmed that the reported miracle in France had been selected for scrutiny in connection with Pope John Paul's cause.

"There is no problem about miracles" in the promotion of John Paul's cause, "because there are many of them-- really quite a few," Archbishop Dziwisz said. He said that the nun's cure was selected for study in part because the facts of the case seemed clear, but also because France is "a country where it wasn't expected."

"The process for beatification is going very well," the Polish archbishop reported. "We are hoping to be finished by March 2006."

Archbishop Dziwisz, who now heads the Krakow archdiocese where Pope John Paul was once the cardinal-archbishop, has opened an investigation there into the life and virtues of the late Pope. "The testimonies are numerous," he said, adding that the challenge is to find "the most accurate, to show the personality of John Paul II." He went on to say that testimony is being collected from many different countries, "because the Pontiff belonged to the whole universal Church, not just to one nation."

The main investigation into the life of John Paul II is unfolding in Rome. (Under the rules for the process, a cause for beatification is opened in the diocese where the candidate died.) The tribunal in Krakow is an offshoot of the investigation in Rome. And a separate inquiry has now been opened in France to study the reported miracle.

The cause for beatification of John Paul II was opened in Rome on June 28 by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the vicar for the Rome diocese. There the tribunal is compiling a complete dossier on the Pope's life, which will be forwarded to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. This dossier will include the work of the Krakow panel.

Archbishop Dziwisz-- who is in Rome with a group of Polish bishops on their ad limina visit-- was appointed in June to be Archbishop of Krakow. Thus he now holds the post that the then-Archbishop Karol Wojtyla occupied when he chose the younger Father Dziwisz to become his personal secretary-- a job he continued to fulfill during John Paul's pontificate. Archbishop Dziwisz regarded the Pope as his spiritual father, and was named by the Pontiff, in his last will and testament, to care for John Paul's private papers and personal property.

"It isn't easy to be the successor of such a great man," said the Polish archbishop. I Media reports that before his death, Pope John Paul left the suggestion that his loyal secretary should be named the next Archbishop of Krakow.

Today, Archbishop Dziwisz said, John Paul II "is not absent; I can tell you that he is even more present than before." The influence of the Polish Pontiff continues to shape the world's thought, he observed. And "Benedict XVI helps with that, because he always recalls him to mind." During a trip to Poland that is tentatively scheduled for June 2006, the new Pope will visit Krakow to pay tribute to his predecessor.