Vatican City (AsiaNews) - John Paul II will be a saint. Although Pope Francis has the final say, John Paul II's cause of canonisation took a decisive step. The plenary meeting of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints believes that Pope John Paul II's intercession led to the healing of a woman. This would be the second miracle attributed to him, the one needed for canonisation.
Pope Francis is expected to ratify the Congregation's opinion at a special consistory and fix the date for the official ceremony. It is generally believed that canonisation will take place later this year, probably before the end of the Year of Faith.
The statement by the Plenary Assembly of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints comes in the wake of the meeting by the medical council at the end of April that recognised as "inexplicable" the healing of a woman on the day of the late pope's beatification, 1 May 2011.
In June, the congregation's Commission of Theologians "approved" the healing as a miracle.
This will fulfil the "saint now" cry that rose from the crowd at John Paul II's funeral on 8 April 2005.
If Pope John Paul II is proclaimed a saint just two years after his beatification, he would outdo Padre Pio whom Pope John Paul II himself had beatified on 2 May 1999 and canonised on 16 June 2002.
The beginning of the cause of beatification was accelerated when Benedict XVI granted an exception to the principle whereby the process cannot start before five years have lapsed after the death of the "servant of God".