Pope John Paul II has moved a step closer to being made a saint, and now needs just the final approval from Pope Francis. The ceremony could come as soon as December.

The Ansa news agency reported that a commission of cardinals and bishops met on Tuesday to consider John Paul's case and signed off on it. A Vatican official confirmed that the decision had been taken some time ago and that the meeting was essentially a formality.

One possible canonisation date is 8 December, the feast of the Immaculate Conception. This year the feast falls on a Sunday, which is when canonisations usually occur.

The Vatican official confirmed reports in La Stampa newspaper that John Paul could be canonised together with Pope John XXIII, who called the second Vatican council but died in 1963 before it was finished.

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

John Paul 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. Some of the Holy See's deep-seated problems – clerical sex abuse, dysfunctional governance and financial scandals at the Vatican bank – essentially date from shortcomings of his pontificate.

Defenders of the fast-track process argue that people are canonised, not pontificates.

In the past the Vatican has sought to balance concerns about papal saints by giving two the honour at the same time. Such was the case in 2000 when John Paul beatified John XXIII, dubbed the "good pope," alongside Pope Pius IX, who confined Jews to Rome's ghetto, condoned the seizure of a Jewish boy and allegedly referred to Jews as dogs.