Catholic Church's most closely guarded secret

PARIS (AP) — Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre is the French nun whose testimony of a mystery cure from Parkinson’s disease will likely be accepted as the miracle the Vatican needs to beatify Pope John Paul II, an official at the Paris maternity hospital where she works said Wednesday.

The identity of the nun has been one of the Catholic Church’s most closely guarded secrets. The nun says that she was cured of Parkinson’s after she and her community of nuns prayed to John Paul.

The nun, a member of the ‘‘Congregation of Little Sisters of Catholic Motherhood’’ in Aix-en-Provence in southeast France, works at the Sainte-Felicite hospital in Paris, the official said on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was expected Sunday.

In Rome, Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Polish cleric spearheading the John Paul’s beatification cause, said the bishop in the woman’s diocese would announce details about her case during his Palm Sunday Mass this weekend.

French newspaper Le Figaro, in an unsourced report late Wednesday on its Web site, first identified the nun by name, saying she was 45 years old.

The nun is traveling to Rome for ceremonies Monday marking the second anniversary of the pontiff’s death and the closure of a church investigation into his life which began after chants of ‘‘Santo Subito!’’ or ‘‘Sainthood Now!’’ erupted during John Paul’s 2005 funeral.

I do find the common sentence "Catholic Church’s most closely guarded secrets" in news articles on this story to be rather funny. Just where are those albino monk assassin when you need them to help us keep our secrets. No mention has been made as to why they might want to keep the identity hidden to prevent interference in the life of this nun. This is often the case such as with Saint Catherine Labore Saint Faustina that even the other nuns in their convent did not know about what was going on in their lives.