Aix-En-Provence, France - A French Catholic nun who said her Parkinson's disease disappeared after she prayed to the late Pope John Paul declined to call her restored health a miracle on Friday.
But she insisted: "I was ill and now I am healed."
Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, 46, told journalists she had suffered for four years and was about to quit work as a maternity ward supervisor in this southeastern city when she suddenly found her hand was calm enough to write clearly again.
Her recovery could be central to a drive to beatify John Paul, putting him one step away from sainthood. The Catholic Church demands proof of a medically unexplained healing to give that honor and a second such case to declare him a saint.
Slightly nervous before a wall of cameras, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre spoke glowingly of the late Polish Pontiff as an inspiration because of his very public suffering from Parkinson's before his death on April 2, 2005.
"All I can say is that I was ill and now I am healed," said the nun, who wore a white habit and veil with a black sweater and walked to and from the news conference with ease.
"It's up to the Church to say whether it was a miracle."
She had no doubt about how she interpreted her recovery. "My healing was the work of God through the intercession of John Paul," Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre said.
She said she and her fellow nuns had prayed to John Paul for her recovery after his death and linked her healing on June 2, 2005, to him. The Church teaches that Catholics can pray to the dead to intercede with God to perform a miracle on Earth.
Parkinson's disease is a progressive and irreversible neurodegenerative disease that begins with tremors and poor balance.
THICK VOLUME
Aix-en-Provence Archbishop Claude Feidt said he would hand over a thick volume of documents on the case to the Vatican on Monday, the second anniversary of John Paul's death. Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre was due to accompany him.
Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre said her neurologist was astounded when he saw her walk into his office normally five days after her sudden change.
"He said, 'Sister, what have you done to get to be this way? Have you doubled your dose of dopamine'?" she recounted, referring to the medicine she was taking.
"I said, no, doctor, I've stopped all that."
Father Luc-Marie Lalanne, who led the inquiry in the Aix-en-Provence archdiocese, said a psychiatrist and three neurologists -- two of them university professors -- had testified they could not explain the nun's recovery.
The nun said she continued work as supervisor of her 40-bed maternity ward near Aix-en-Provence, until she was transferred last year to another maternity ward in Paris run by her order.
Lalanne said he had no idea how long the Vatican would take to examine the nun's case and whether it would be recognized as a miracle. Church experts in Rome expect it to be approved.
Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre said she wanted to meet the media because John Paul had never avoided journalists. "He never shied away from the cameras. That gave me strength," she said.