Church Is Tipped Off to a Final Miracle of John Paul II

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The New York Sun

ROME — A man apparently cured of lung, kidney, and spinal cancer just weeks after doctors said he had no hope left has been cited as the final miracle required to secure the sainthood of Pope John Paul II.

A tailor from Salerno, southern Italy, Nicola Grippo, 76, got cancer three years ago. Until a few months ago, his body was riddled with tumors, and his doctors told him he would die.

However, he made a dramatic recovery after a vision of John Paul II apparently came to his wife, Elisabeth. “One night, the pope appeared to her in a dream, holding a small child in his hand and walking on a road of white cobblestones,” he told La Stampa newspaper.

“The doctors came to me and asked if I was a believer, if I had prayed to a saint. So my wife told them about her dream. They told me that my lungs were clear of all traces of cancer and that they could not claim credit for the cure,” he added.

His recovery has been held up by a senior Vatican prelate, Archbishop Gerardo Pierro, as the second miracle that John Paul II needs to be canonized. “It was a prodigious intervention, a miracle of the first order,” he said.

The late pope has been put on the so-called “fast-track” to sainthood by his successor, Benedict XVI, and Vatican theologians are currently verifying the evidence in his favor. The investigators are weighing his life, his works and writings, and the virtue of his service to God.

However, two miracles are required, and they must be examined by several Vatican councils and consultants before being given the seal of approval by Pope Benedict.

The sudden appearance of Vatican officials at his bedside shocked Mr. Grippo, who said, “For me it was a surprise, this story about the miracle. I was called by Bishop Pierro to the cathedral, and he made me sign the papers that authorize the Vatican to examine all my medical records. I am hot and bothered by all this attention. I would have liked that it remained a secret.”

Doctors at the San Leonardo hospital in Salerno are thought to have tipped off the church.

The hospital is used to miracles. One of its former patients made a similar recovery, which was cited during the canonization process of Italy’s most popular saint, Padre Pio.

Mr. Grippo is more willing to credit his recovery to medicine than God, although he said he had prayed to “everyone” in his desperation.

He also spoke of his sadness that the miracle did not come to save his daughters, both of whom died young. “Now, I and my wife are alone. I have lost two daughters. One was 20 and died of leukemia. The other died in a car crash. I would have wanted the miracle for them,” he said.

The late pope’s first miracle involved a French nun apparently cured of Parkinson’s disease.


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