Praying to dead people

For months she was known as the "mystery nun," an unidentified member of a religious order who told a Catholic Church investigator that she was miraculously cured of advanced Parkinson's disease after she and other nuns prayed to the late Pope John Paul II.

- Washington Post

Would this work for me, or do you actually have to be Catholic to get good results by praying to dead people?

Is praying to a dead pope more effective than praying to God?

Obviously, I should have taken more theology classes, and then I would already know the answers to these important questions.