2 Johns for sainthood

VATICAN CITY — December is being eyed as a possible date for the canonization of Pope John Paul II.

Dec. 8 has been floated as one possibility, given it’s the feast of the Immaculate Conception, a major feast day for the church.

Pope Francis yesterday cleared Pope John Paul II for sainthood, approving a miracle attributed to his intercession and setting up a remarkable dual canonization along with another beloved pope, John XXIII.

A Vatican spokesman said that Francis will convene a consistory, or a gathering of cardinals, to set the date for a canonization ceremony in the near future.

In a major demonstration of his papal authority, Francis decided to make John XXIII a saint even though the Vatican hasn’t confirmed a second miracle attributed to his intercession.

A Vatican official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized by the church to discuss saint-making cases on the record, confirmed reports in La Stampa newspaper that John Paul could be canonized together with Pope John XXIII, who called the Second Vatican Council but died in 1963 before it was finished.

The ANSA news agency reported that a commission of cardinals and bishops met Tuesday to consider John Paul’s case and signed off on it.

A Vatican official confirmed that the decision had been taken some time back and that Tuesday’s meeting was essentially a formality.

One possible canoniza tion date is Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. This year the feast coincidentally falls on a Sunday, which is when canonizations usually occur.

There is reasoned precedent for beatifying or canonizing two popes together, primarily to balance one another out.

John Paul II has been on the fast track for possible sainthood ever since his 2005 death, but there remains some concern that the process has been too quick.

Defenders of the fast-track process argue that people are canonized, not pontificates. But the Vatican in the past has sought to balance concerns about papal saints by giving the two the honor at the same time.

A Vatican spokesman said that because it’s the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) and because “no one doubts” the late pope’s holiness, Francis has decided to go ahead.

The Vatican said Francis had the power to “dispense” with the normal saint-making procedures to canonize him on his own merit, without a miracle.

The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed that the miracle that brought John Paul to the ranks of sainthood concerned a Costa Rican woman.

The Spanish Catholic newspaper La Razon has identified her as Floribeth Mora, and said she suffered from a cerebral aneurysm that was inexplicably cured on May 1, 2011 — the day of John Paul’s beatification, when 1.5 million people filled St. Peter’s Square.

In a series of reports last month, La Razon reported that Mora awoke with debilitating head pain on April 8 and went to the hospital, where her condition worsened to the point that she was sent home with only a month to live.

Her family prayed to John Paul II, and the aneurysm disappeared.

La Razon quoted her doctor, Dr. Alejandro Vargas, who said: “It surprised me a lot that the aneurysm disappeared, I can’t explain it based on science.” AP