World News
Nuns who experienced JPII miracle bring message of hope, victory
Published: May 4, 2012
WORCESTER, Mass. (CNS) -- Nuns who experienced the miracle that led to Blessed John Paul II's beatification brought a message of hope and victory through surrender to the Catholics of Worcester. Sister Marie Simon-Pierre Normand, healed of Parkinson's disease in 2005, and Sister Marie Thomas Fabre, then her superior and now mother general of the Little Sisters of Catholic Maternity in France, were visiting the United States for the first time. They came at the invitation of Father Kazimierz Chwalek, provincial for the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception in the U.S. and Argentina, and Marie Romagnano, founder of Healthcare Professionals for Divine Mercy, to speak at a May 1-2 conference on medicine, bioethics and spirituality at the College of the Holy Cross. The sisters, who speak only in French, also gave talks at the Divine Mercy Shrine in Stockbridge, St. Paul Cathedral in Worcester, St. Joseph Elementary School in Webster and St. Stephen Elementary School in Worcester. Among children crowding around them at St. Stephen's was first-grader Caroline Villa, named for Karol Wojtyla (Pope John Paul II), who showed off her statue of the pontiff. "I think that it was an amazing experience because I don't know how many people get to meet or listen to somebody that's received a miracle," said enthusiastic eighth-grader Michaela Lavoie. "I found it interesting to be in the same room with someone who has experienced a miraculous cure, and the one who lived through it with her," said Pauline Ludwig after the sisters spoke at the health care conference. She is pastoral associate at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Webster and a nurse in Catholic Charities' home care program.
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