John Paul II could be declared a saint this year after a Vatican committee approved a second 
miracle attributed to the Polish pope's intercession.
 
The Congregation for the Causes of Saints ruled an 
"inexplicable recovery" on 1 May 2011 was due to the late Pope's 
intercession, Ansa reported.
        Earlier that same day he had been beatified after a first miracle was attributed to his intervention.
        Pope Francis must now give his approval before a canonisation date is set.
        Canonisation is the final step in the official process that declares a deceased person to be a saint.
  
Speedy process
       At a plenary meeting of the Congregation on Tuesday, cardinals
 and bishops mooted a canonisation ceremony taking place in December, 
sources told Ansa.
  
The Polish pope reformed the sainthood process in 1983
  
One possible date would be 8 December, on which Catholics 
celebrate the feast of the Immaculate Conception, which this year falls 
on a Sunday.
        John Paul II could be canonised at the same time as John 
XXIII, Vatican sources suggested. Venerated by Catholics as "the good 
pope", John XXIII was elected in 1958 and convened the Second Vatican 
Council in 1962, but died the following year before it was finished.
        Canonisation requires the attribution of one further miracle 
to the intercession of the candidate after they have been beatified.
        The Vatican has not revealed details about the second miracle in John Paul II's case. 
        It was reportedly deemed an "inexplicable recovery" by a 
panel of doctors before being approved last month by a board of the 
Congregation for the Causes of Saints' theologians.
        John Paul II died in 2005 aged 84 and was beatified by his successor Benedict XVI in May 2011. 
        Among a crowd hundreds of thousands strong on St Peter's 
Square was French nun Marie Simon-Pierre, who says she was cured of 
Parkinson's Disease after praying for the intervention of the late pope 
little more than a month after he died.
        Some questioned the Church's speed in beatifying John Paul II just six years after his death.
        Although widely regarded as one of the great popes of modern 
times, his 26-year pontificate was tarnished by his handling of the 
clerical sex abuse scandal that has rocked the global Church.
        Critics say other of the Church's deep-seated problems - such
 as its dysfunctional management and financial scandals at the Vatican 
bank - stem from shortcomings of his pontificate.
        John Paul II reformed the sainthood process in 1983, making 
it faster, simpler, and cheaper. The office of "Devil's advocate" - an 
official whose job was to try to knock down the case for sainthood - was
 eliminated, and the required number of miracles was dropped. 
        The idea was to lift up contemporary role models of holiness 
in order to convince a jaded secular world that sanctity is alive in the
 here and now, says veteran Vatican analyst John Allen.
        The result was that John Paul II beatified and canonised more people than all previous popes combined.