Santo Subito! Blessed John Paul II Will Be Declared a Saint

The Vatican has approved the the last miracle needed to confirm John Paul II’s sainthood, says the Italian news agency ANSA . All that’s needed is a signature from Pope Francis.

The process of declaring former pope John Paul II a saint took a major step forward Tuesday, when the board of theologians of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved his second miracle.

Two confirmed miracles are needed for sainthood; they must be ” instantaneous, permanent, and with no scientific explanation .” The first, which was necessary for his beatification occurred “just six months after his death in 2005.”

That was the healing of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, whose recovery from Parkinson’s disease after praying for the late John Paul II’s “intercession” had no medical explanation.

The second miracle reportedly took place on the very day that John Paul II was beatified in a lavish ceremony in St Peter’s Square on May 1, 2011, and was the healing of a woman from Costa Rica.

John Paul II was hugely popular through his 27-year papacy, and at his funeral in 2005, crowds of mourners cried “Santo Subito!” — which roughly translates as “Sainthood Now!”

According to reports in the daily La Stampa on Tuesday, the late pontiff could be formally canonised at the close of the “year of faith” along with one of his predecessors, John XXIII.