Pope John Paul moves closer to sainthood

Vatican City, Apr 2: The late Pope John Paul moves a step closer to sainthood today, the second anniversary of his death, when Catholic Church officials formally conclude the first phase of a probe into his holiness.As thousands of pilgrims poured into Rome, the Vatican has laid on special events to mark the anniversary of the death of the 20th century's most popular pope.

At midday today the Rome diocese will officially give the Vatican tens of thousands of pages of documentation and transcripts which propose that John Paul should be beatified, the last step before sainthood.

The documentation includes the case of Marie Simon-Pierre, a 46-year-old French nun diagnosed with Parkinson's -- the same disease that the late Pope had until she said it inexplicably disappeared exactly two months after his death.

Simon-Pierre, who worked as a maternity ward supervisor in Aix-En-Provence, could be central to the case since the Church demands proof of a medically unexplained healing before a candidate for sainthood can be beatified.

If the Vatican rules the case a miracle, another would be required before sainthood is bestowed.

At a news conference on Friday in France, the nun spoke glowingly of the late Polish Pontiff as an inspiration because of his very public suffering from Parkinson's.

''My healing was the work of God through the intercession of John Paul,'' she said.

She said she and her fellow nuns had prayed to John Paul for her recovery after his death and linked her healing to him. The Church teaches that Catholics can pray to the dead to intercede with God to perform a miracle on Earth.

Miracle Worker

Starting today, the documentation prepared by the Rome and Krakow dioceses will be reviewed by the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints.

It will study John Paul's writings and spoken words before and after he became pope and a new set of medical experts will determine if the curing of the nun was due to a miracle.

If so, John Paul can be beatified by his successor.

The nun wrote of her experiences in a magazine published by Italy's Catholic Church.

''I was losing weight day by day. I could no longer write and if I did try to, it was difficult to decipher. I could no longer drive ... because my left leg became rigid,'' she wrote.

On June 2, 2005, two months after the Pope's death, she said she felt the sudden urge to pick up a pen. ''My handwriting was completely legible my body was no longer pained, no longer rigid I felt a profound sense of peace,'' she wrote.

Her neurologist and other doctors and psychologists who later examined her were at a loss for a medical explanation.

The day of events commemorating John Paul starts early today when his former private secretary, Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, says a Mass at his tomb in St Peter's Basilica.

Later in Rome's Basilica of St Johns in Lateran, officials in charge of the sainthood case will close its first phase.

Many Catholics are convinced of John Paul's holiness. Crowds at his funeral chanted ''Santo Subito'' (''Make him a saint now'').

In May, 2005, Pope Benedict put John Paul on the fast track by dispensing with Church rules that normally impose a five-year waiting period after a candidate's death before the procedure that leads to sainthood can even start.

Today afternoon Pope Benedict will say a Mass in the Vatican commemorating the second anniversary of John Paul and may hint of whether he is considering any other dispensations.

Reuters