The good news reached Maria Helena Pambo as she stood in line in St. Peter's Square to pray at the tomb of Pope John Paul II On a gloriously sunny afternoon, Pambo, 34, heard that the former pontiff is to be officially beatified this spring, barely six years after his death — the quickest anyone has been bestowed the honor in modern times. The Vatican announced Friday that his successor, Pope Benedict XVI , had approved the move."It's a day of joy and happiness," said Pambo, a nun from Peru. "I never met John Paul II, but now that I live in Rome, every two or three days when I have some time off, I come to pray at his tomb. I ask him for help."Tens of thousands of her fellow devotees are expected to converge on the square May 1, the first Sunday after Easter, for the beatification ceremony. Replete with religious pomp and fervor, the event is expected to be a morale booster for an institution beleaguered by accusations of silence and duplicity in its handling of thousands of allegations of priestly abuse.John Paul's elevation was set after Benedict certified the findings of a panel charged with verifying a miracle ascribed to the late pontiff, a prerequisite for beatification, which is an intermediate step toward sainthood.Church-appointed investigators concluded that a French nun was miraculously cured of Parkinson's disease after praying to John Paul within weeks of his death on April 2, 2005. He had suffered from the same ailment.The popular Polish-born pontiff is now one step closer to being declared a saint. To qualify for that, a second miracle must be determined to have occurred at his posthumous intervention.He was launched on the road to sainthood much sooner than usual: The Vatican's rules decree that a person must be dead for at least five years before the process leading to canonization can begin.But soon after John Paul's death, Benedict declared that he would waive the waiting period and initiate the process immediately, perhaps in response to the throngs of fervent followers who crowded St. Peter's Square for the pope's funeral, waving signs demanding, "Sainthood right now!"Such a "fast track" to sainthood is unusual, but not unprecedented. In fact, John Paul did the same for Mother Teresa, who died in 1997 and was beatified in 2003. His own elevation will beat out hers for the title of quickest by a matter of days.Marco Tosatti, a veteran Vatican-watcher, said the public outpouring of adulation for John Paul almost certainly had an effect on Benedict's decision, aside from any personal reverence he might feel toward his predecessor."If the Vatican had said 'No, we don't have enough reasons to say he's a saint,' Catholic people would consider him a saint in spite of it. They don't need the Vatican seal of approval," said Tosatti, who writes for the Italian newspaper La Stampa. "The people considered him a saint even when he was still alive."For millions around the world, the late pope was an inspiring figure because of his unwavering opposition to communism during the Cold War, his resilience after being seriously wounded in a 1981 assassination attempt and a common touch that endeared him to devotees during his frequent trips around the world to promote his church.But there are critics, too, who note his rigid stance in opposing female priests, contraception and gay rights, and the fact that many of the cases of sexual molestation and physical abuse of minors by priests, nuns and other Catholic workers occurred during his 27-year papacy."The church hierarchy can avoid rubbing more salt into these wounds by slowing down their hasty drive to confer sainthood on the pontiff under whose reign most of the widely documented clergy sex crimes and cover-ups took place," Barbara Dorris, spokeswoman for a victims rights group, Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, said in a statement from St. Louis. "We urge Vatican officials to move cautiously in their haste to honor Pope John Paul II."Last year, some Vatican officials reportedly had doubts about the diagnosis and healing of the Parkinson's disease that afflicted Sister Marie Simon-Pierre, a nun who works in a hospital in Arles, France. She had told church authorities that after other nuns had prayed to John Paul for her and after she herself had written down his name on a piece of paper, she awoke one morning in June 2005 free of the disabling symptoms that had made normal life impossible.But the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints said Friday that their medical investigators had scrutinized the case carefully and concluded that the nun's recovery from the degenerative disease had no scientific explanation, in other words, that the miracle was genuine.Interviewed Friday by French and Italian television, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre said John Paul "hasn't left me; he won't leave me until the end of my life."Tosatti said that more than 300 miracles already have been attributed to John Paul since his death; and though the nun's case might not have been the strongest, church authorities apparently decided to stick with it.Despite the misgivings of some people about the fast-track process, Tosatti said the late pope made a smart candidate because so much of his life had been subjected to the glare of the international news media and no unsavory new details were likely to be unearthed.At the end of 2009, Benedict gave formal recognition of John Paul's "heroic virtues" and granted him the title of "venerable." After his beatification, the late pontiff will be known as "blessed."In Joan Millan's eyes, he already is."John Paul II always demonstrated intelligence and strong character," said Millan, 49, who was visiting St. Peter's Square on Friday with his wife, Patricia Rangel, from their home in Barcelona, Spain. "He also made a huge effort to unify all the churches. He was a man a step ahead of the others."This doesn't make him a saint," Millan said. "But it definitely helped." ||||| Slideshow: A historic papacy Wojtek Laski / Getty Images View a timeline of photographs spanning the life of Pope John Paul II. Launch slideshow 
 
 Pope Francis cleared John Paul II for sainthood on Friday, approving miracles attributed to the late pontiff. 
 
 Pope John Paul II's first approved miracle was the healing of a French nun, Sister Marie Simon-Pierre. Her recovery from Parkinson’s disease after praying for the late pontiff's intersession offered no medical explanation, according to the Vatican. The healing was confirmed as a miracle just six months after the pope's death in 2005. 
 
 The second miracle is said to have occurred on May 1, 2011 – the night of John Paul’s beatification ceremony in St. Peter’s Square – and was the healing of a Costa Rican woman. 
 
 Andreas Solaro / AFP - Getty Images, file French nun Marie Simon-Pierre (right) attends a solemn ceremony at San Giovanni Basilica in Rome on April 2, 2007. A Vatican commission says she was miraculously cured of Parkinson's disease through the intercession of John Paul II. 
 
 On Tuesday, Italian news agency ANSA reported that a Vatican congregation of cardinals and bishops had credited John Paul with the second miracle. 
 
 Seventy-eight former popes have been canonized, the last being Pope Pius X, who served as head of the Roman Catholic Church from 1903 to 1914. He was canonized in 1954. 
 
 The Vatican said Pope John XXIII, who was pontiff from 1958 to 1963 and called the Second Vatican Council, would also be made a saint, Reuters said. 
 
 No dates for the canonization ceremonies were immediately given. 
 
 The Associated Press, Reuters and NBC News' Gillian Spear contributed to this report. 
 
 Pope Francis has approved the canonization of Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII, with ceremonies expected at the end of the year. 
 
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– John Paul II's fast track to sainthood gets even faster this week. A Vatican panel has concluded that the former pontiff did indeed perform a miracle—a nun says her Parkinson's disappeared after she prayed to him—and will present its findings to Pope Benedict within days, reports Reuters. Benedict is expected to approve the miracle, then set a date for beatification later this year. That would bring John Paul one step from canonization, at which point he'll need either one more miracle or a waiver from Benedict. A Guardian columnist thinks the fast pace (it usually takes decades) is a mistake.