by Jean Hudson, KUAM News Saturday, February 18, 2006 E-mail this article Printable version KUAM Toolbar Web Widgets Get RSS headlines

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As the world prepares to remember the late Holy Father Pope John Paul II on the first anniversary of his death, Catholics on Guam will also remember his baptismal day on June 20. Archbishop Anthony Apuron says there is speculation around that time and hope among the Roman Catholic Church that the late pontiff will be beatified. This is the process needed to make him a saint, to be followed by canonization.

The archbishop says one miracle must be proven to have taken place through the intercession of the person to be beatified. "There is one miracle a nun cured of Parkinson's Disease," he explained. "A prayer that came out of the Vatican to ask for favors for his intersession." The church is investigating the case of the French nun who was diagnosed with the progressive disease that attacks the nervous system. Pope John Paul II had also suffered from Parkinson's. The nun's healing has been submitted to Vatican investigators.

From among the many apparently miraculous healings people from around the world had reported, Archbishop Apuron talks about his personal experience. Last year while in Rome, the archbishop met the father and mother of a boy who was diagnosed with a serious eye disease. The archbishop gave the family a rosary and an intercessory prayer by Pope John Paul II. "I gave this card out to a family whose son, a ten-year old boy had trouble with the eye. Was on the verge of having the eye removed and they told me later that his eye had been healed through his intersession through that prayer," he recalled.

While the family's experience is not a primary part of Pope John Paul's beatification process, the archbishop is just happy that the boy is better these days. In the meantime, Pope Benedict XVI has set aside the normal five-year waiting period before Pope John Paul's cause could be open.

Said Archbishop Apuron, "First it has to be proven medically so that the doctors who claim that this individual who had something has had nothing like the Sister who had Parkinson's disease and then this young boy who was on the verge of having his right eye removed because of Cancer and is completely cured and the doctor was surprised."