VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis on Friday cleared two of the 20th century’s most influential popes to become saints, approving a miracle needed to canonize Pope John Paul II and waiving Vatican rules to honor Pope John XXIII.

Francis decided that John XXIII could be declared a saint even though the Vatican hasn’t confirmed a second miracle attributed to his intercession. The Vatican said Francis had the power to dispense with such requirements and proceed with only one confirmed miracle to John XXIII’s name.

The ceremony is expected before the end of the year. Dec. 8 has been floated as one possibility, given it’s the feast of the Immaculate Conception, a major feast day for the church. Polish prelates continue to press for October, to mark the 35th anniversary of the Polish-born John Paul’s election, but Vatican officials have suggested that’s too soon to organize such a large event.

The announcement came on a day that melded papacies past and present: It opened with Francis and Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI attending their first Vatican ceremony together, sitting side by side on matching papal chairs for the unveiling of a statue in the Vatican gardens. It continued with the publication of Francis’ first encyclical, a meditation on faith that was largely written by Benedict before he retired. And it climaxed with Francis’ decision to canonize two otherpredecessors.

Francis’ decision to canonize John Paul and John XXIII is not a surprise to many: Francis, a Jesuit, was made a cardinal by John Paul and is very much a pope of the Second Vatican Council, the groundbreaking church meetings that brought the Catholic Church into themodern world. John XXIII opened Vatican II a year before his death, in 1963.

“Two different popes, very important to the church, will be announced saint together - it’s a beautiful gesture,” said the Rev. Jozef Kloch, spokesman for Poland’s Catholic bishops. Kloch, like most Poles, was overjoyed by the news of John Paul’s impending canonization but impatient to know the date.

Francis will set the date at a coming meeting of cardinals. The Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, confirmed that the miracle that moved John Paul to the ranksof saints concerned a Costa Rican woman.

The Spanish 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 date of John Paul’s beatification, when 1.5 million people filled St. Peter’s Square.

La Razon reported last month that Mora awoke with debilitating head pain on April 8, 2011, 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, and the aneurysm disappeared.

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

The Associated Press traveled to Mora’s home in Costa Rica this week, but was told that she was bound by secrecy and couldn’t discuss her case. With the miracle now approved by Francis, she told her story Friday at a news conference organized by the Costa Rican church.

John Paul, who was pope from 1978-2005, revolutionized the papacy, traveling the world and inspiring a generation of young Catholics to be excited about their faith. He was the first Polish pope and the first non-Italian in 455 years - a legacy that continued with the German-born Benedict XVI and Argentine Francis.

On the anniversary of John Paul’s death this year, Francis prayed at the tombs of both John Paul and John XXIII - an indication that he sees a great personal and spiritual continuity in them.

Benedict spent much of his pontificate trying to correct what he considered wrong interpretations of Vatican II, insisting it wasn’t the break from the past that liberals believed. The council opened the church to people of other faiths and allowed for Mass to be celebrated in the languages of the faithful, rather than Latin.

While not disagreeing outright with Benedict, Francis seems to take a more progressive reading of Vatican II and its call to go out into the world and spread the faith - a priority he has shown in the first months of his pontificate.

The Vatican’s complicated saint-making procedure requires that the Vatican certify a “miracle” was performed through the intercession of the candidate - often a medically inexplicable cure that is lasting, immediate and can be directly linked to the prayers offered by the faithful. One miracle is needed for beatification, which is the first step to sainthood, a second for canonization.

Benedict put John Paul on the fast track for possible sainthood when he dispensed with the traditional five-year post-death waiting period and allowed the beatification process to begin weeks after John Paul died.

Asked how John XXIII, elected in 1958, could be canonized without a second miracle, the Vatican spokesman insisted that many theologians believe that a second miracle isn’t required. He said Francis had approved a decision by the cardinals and bishops of the Vatican’s saint-making office.

“Certainly the pope has the power, in a certain sense, to dispense of the second miracle in a cause, and this is what happened,” Lombardi said.

“John XXIII is someone who we know is beloved in the church. We’re in the 50th anniversary of the Council which he started, and I don’t think any of us have any doubts about his virtues,” Lombardi said.

Front Section, Pages 7 on 07/06/2013