Late pope John Paul II could be beatified this year, former Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls said Thursday.''The two key technical passages that are missing could happen this year,'' he told Sole 24 Ore.
Once the cardinals and bishops of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints have greenlighted a decree recognising John Paul's ''heroic virtues'' - a key requirement - and certified a miracle attributed to him, ''the pope can decide the date to proclaim his beatification,'' Navarro said, adding that ''he can do it at any moment''.
The Vatican this week denied reports in Italian newspapers that John Paul II's cause had been slowed because a Polish psychiatrist, Wanda Poltawska, had failed to hand over some personal correspondence with the Polish pontiff.
Navarro-Valls said Wednesday that he did not believe the letters ''would put the brakes on the process'', adding that he ''did not see this great friendship'' which Poltawska claims to have had with the late pope.
''I exclude, 1000%, that (Poltawska) could have influenced the pope's decisions,'' he added.
On Monday Daniel Ols, the spokesman for John Paul II's cause, also brushed off reports that the process had been ''delayed''.
Ols would not confirm or deny the well-aired hypothesis that the beatification could occur in April 2010, on the fifth anniversary of the pope's death.
Candidates for beatification - the step that precedes canonization - must overcome a complicated and lengthy vetting process before beatification, the preliminary stage before sainthood.
In the case of pontiffs the procedure is usually much longer because the Vatican must examine much more material given the mass of responsibility and decisions made by popes.
However, Pope Benedict XVI has put John Paul II's beatification cause on a fast track, waiving a rule requiring a five-year wait before the start of the process.
New reports of miracles attributed to John Paul II's heavenly intervention are said to arrive in Rome every week.
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