Responding to this demand, Pope Benedict XVI rapidly began the process of the beatification of his predecessor. John Paul II, in the period of his own pontificate, had named 1339 people “blessed” and consecrated 482 “saints”, including Padre Pio, Jose Marie Escriva, founder of Opus Dei, and Mother Theresa.

Written letters and recorded testimonies had enabled investigators, appointed by the Vatican, to establish “the virtuous courage of this servant of God”. Now a miracle performed by the deceased after his death, was needed. Here is how it was done. This miracle came to be widely circulated, starting in April 2007. Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre, 46 years old, a member of the Little Sisters of Catholic Maternity Hospitals, was said to have been suddenly cured of Parkinson’s Disease, from which she had been suffering since 2001. Her condition had deteriorated, and she suffered from increasing distress and pain in walking. For “strength” she turned, in her prayers, to John Paul II who suffered from the same disease.

The death of the sovereign Pontiff in April 2005 was a shock for Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre. She wrote, “I have lost the one who gave me the strength to go on”. Two months later, she went to her superior to ask to be excused from all activity. “Wait a little, John Paul II has not had his last word” suggested Mother Marie Thomas, offering her a pen to write the name of the deceased pope on a supplication. That same evening, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre felt an intense need to write. Her writing became more legible. She lay down, and fell asleep. At 4.30am, Sister Marie-Simon-Pierre woke up; she prayed to the Holy Sacrament, feeling herself transformed, freed, restored; all treatment was stopped at noon.

On June 7, her neurologist certified the disappearance of her illness. No more Parkinson’s Disease. “I am cured” she said to her doctor, “it is the work of God, by the intercession of John Paul II. I am living a second birth. Now it is for the Church to decide if this recovery is a miracle”. And, therefore, for Benedict XVI to decide. Taking into account the mediation carried out, one can hardly doubt what his decision would be.

Saint John Paul II – new mediator between God and man, added to the multitude of those already offered the prayers of Catholics around the world! A flagrant contradiction of the text in 1 Timothy 2:5 which tells us clearly that Jesus Christ is the only mediator. Under the heading of religion, the weekly magazine “Le Point”, no. 1803, April 5 2007, contained an article on the subject under the title “How the Vatican manufactures its saints”.

Protestant reader, whose beliefs are evangelical and who proclaims attachment to the message of Holy Scripture but who is open to ecumenism and is favourable to its manifestation, how do you regard these practices? How do you reconcile them with the teaching of the Bible? What do you think of these prayers addressed to the dead and to the action of the dead upon the living? Clearly are such things not the manifestation of spiritism, condemned – and with such severity – by the law of God as “abominations unto the Lord”? (Deuteronomy 18:11-12).