Was cancer cure a Pope Pius XII miracle?

CASTELLAMMARE DI STABIA, Italy -- Maria Esposito was ready to give up. At 92 pounds, she couldn't bear another dose of chemotherapy to fight the Stage IV Burkitt's lymphoma that had invaded her body.

But as she and her family had done since she was diagnosed with the rare and aggressive form of cancer in July 2005, Esposito prayed to the man who had appeared to her husband in a dream as the only person who could save her: Pope Pius XII.

Esposito was cured after a single, six-week cycle of chemotherapy -- a recovery that, she says, stunned her doctors and convinced her the pope had intervened with God.

Esposito's case, which the 42-year-old teacher recounted to The Associated Press, has been proposed to the Vatican as the possible miracle needed to beatify Pius, one of the most controversial sainthood causes under way, given that many Jews say he failed to speak out enough to stop the Holocaust.

Doctors and church officials aren't so sure about the miracle. Esposito's local bishop, Msgr. Felice Cece, summoned Esposito earlier this year to testify about her recovery. After consulting two outside doctors, Cece determined that Esposito could have been cured by even a single cycle of chemo and essentially closed the case.

But Esposito's supporters, led by Pius' main biographer Sister Margherita Marchione, have gone over the bishop's head and are sending her full medical file directly to the Vatican.