A second miracle, which will be needed before Blessed John Paul II can be canonized, has received a favorable opinion from the medical council of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, which represents a pivotal step toward finalization of the process.

Vatican Insider is reporting that the postulator of the cause of Blessed John Paul II, Msgr. Slawomir Oder, submitted an alleged miraculous healing to the Congregation for the Causes of Saints in January for a preliminary opinion. Two doctors of the Vatican council had already examined the case and given it a favorable review, which prompted its quick presentation to the Congregation.

“In the past few days it was discussed by a committee of seven doctors, the council (presided over by Dr. Patrick Polisca, Pope John Paul II’s cardiologist), Pope Benedict XVI’s personal physicians and now Pope Francis’s,” Vatican Insider reports.

“The medical council also gave a favorable opinion, the first official go-ahead by the Vatican, by defining as inexplicable the healing attributed to the intercession of the blessed Karol Wojtyla.”

This is considered to be the first big hurdle in the canonization process, which must now be reviewed by theologians and then the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation. Pope Francis will have to give the final “yes” vote before Pope John Paul can be declared a saint.

Should this happen, it would mean achieving sainthood in a record eight years after his death in 2005.

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