Pope On Saint Fast-Track?

Despite Lack Of Miracles, Many Pushing For John Paul Sainthood

(AP)  Posters and T-shirts are already declaring it, pilgrims are pushing it, and even cardinals are backing the swelling popular campaign to declare Pope John Paul II a saint.

The Vatican must verify two miracles for John Paul to be canonized, and even then the process can take centuries. But with millions of people paying homage to John Paul, the start of the saint-making machine seems almost inevitable.

The Rev. Peter Gumpel, who is spearheading the cause for sainthood for another pope, Pius XII, said Thursday he thought John Paul was certainly worthy and that it was likely his case would get fast-tracked, like that of Mother Teresa.

"I think there will be a top priority given to this cause," Gumpel said in an interview. "It is well possible, with a view to the importance and the great admiration of the present pope, that procedures will be sped up."

It was John Paul himself who changed the rules and allowed the Vatican to begin the saint-making process for Mother Teresa just one year after she died, instead of the usual five. Mother Teresa died in 1997 and John Paul beatified her in 2003, the last step to possible sainthood.

Gumpel said such fast-track procedures could be applied to the late pope, but he ruled out speculation that John Paul's successor might immediately proceed to canonizing him without first taking the necessary steps to beatify him.

"I think this is downright absurd, and this is not likely to happen," Gumpel said.

Bypassing the time-honored process of researching a candidate's life, having it judged by cardinals, bishops and theologians, and then verifying a miracle "would not do full justice to the man," he said.

Nevertheless, there's a movement in the streets to do just that for the man who created more saints than all his predecessors in the past 500 years combined.

Vendors around Rome are selling T-shirts proclaiming "Saint Karol." A giant poster reading "Grazie Padre Santo," or "Thank You Saint Father" was plastered on Via della Conciliazione, the main boulevard leading to St. Peter's Square.

And Italian newspapers are already reporting supposed miraculous events attributed to John Paul's intercession — even though he has only been dead for a week and to be valid, the miracle must occur after death.

"The church will decide in time," Vittorio Messori, a leading Catholic author who helped the pope write the 1994 best-selling book "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," wrote in the Corriere della Sera newspaper this week.

"But many have already anticipated the judgment; and the reasons for doing so are not lacking."