John Paul On Sainthood Fast Track

Pope Benedict XVI said Friday he had begun the process for the possible sainthood of Pope John Paul II, overriding the usual five-year waiting period following the death of a candidate before beatification procedures can begin.

The pope made the announcement in Latin during a meeting with the Roman clergy at the Basilica of St. John Lateran.

The announcement opens the way for the possible beatification and canonization of John Paul, pending an investigation into the late pope's life and approval of miracles attributed to him. One miracle is required for John Paul to be beatified, a second one for him to be declared a saint.

Calls for John Paul II to be proclaimed a saint started to be made immediately after his death on April 2, reports CBS News Correspondent Sabina Castelfranco. Reports of miracles he carried out during his long papacy started to emerge. At his funeral mass pilgrims held up banners saying "Santo Subito," Immediate Sainthood. Benedict's decision will make him very popular.

The announcement drew a standing ovation from the Roman priests.

The pope read a letter in which the Vatican official in charge of sainthood, Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, announced that Benedict himself had authorized the beginning of John Paul's path to possible sainthood.

"And now I have a very joyous piece of news for you," Benedict said in Italian before making the announcement in Latin.

Benedict, who had been seated, stood up to join the clergy in applauding the major tribute to his predecessor.

The announcement came on the anniversary of an 1981 assassination attempt against John Paul in St. Peter's Square at the hands of a Turkish gunman. Benedict did not mention the attempt in his announcement Friday.

John Paul himself lifted the five-year waiting period for the beatification procedures to begin for Mother Teresa, the nun who dedicated her life to caring for India's poorest people.

He launched the beatification process a year after Mother Teresa's 1997 death. Mother Teresa was beatified in October 2003.

A Vatican official speaking on condition of anonymity said Friday that Benedict's announcement dispenses with the five-year wait without reservations, but gives no time element for John Paul's possible beatification and does not do away with requirements including the investigation of the late pope's life and the approval of a miracle.

Following the late pope's death, Italian newspapers were rife with reports of alleged miracles attributed to John Paul.

But the reports stemmed from inexplicable cures that occurred while John Paul was still alive, while according to Vatican rules, a miracle has to have occurred after John Paul's death for it to be considered in the saint-making process.

In another development, the pope named San Francisco Archbishop William Levada as the Vatican's chief orthodoxy watchdog on Friday, tapping an American conservative to fill one of the most powerful church offices, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

Before his election as pope, Benedict held the office for more than 23 years, gaining a reputation as a hard-liner in defending church teaching.

Levada, a 68-year-old theologian, is the first American to hold the post, which is the highest position to be held by an American at the Vatican.

Levada joined the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1976 and served for six years, leaving shortly after when Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger took over as prefect in 1981. He returned as one of the five bishops on the congregation in 2000.

Levada has served as archbishop of San Francisco since 1995; before that, he was archbishop of another largely liberal American city, Portland, Ore.

He helped draft the Catechism of the Catholic Church — essentially the handbook on everything you need to believe to be a Catholic, and one of the major accomplishments of Pope John Paul II's papacy.

Levada has spoken out on some pressing doctrinal concerns, voicing opposition to same-sex marriages and saying priests should ask bishops for guidance on whether to refuse a Catholic politician communion if the politician supports abortion rights.

He is expert on the authority of the pope as head of the Roman Catholic Church, and has also been involved in efforts aimed at Episcopalian-Roman Catholic dialogue in the United States.

In tapping an American, Benedict has put someone in charge of his old office who is deeply familiar with the clergy sexual abuse scandal in the American church. After the scandal erupted in 2002, John Paul decided that the issue should be handled by Ratzinger's congregation.

Benedict and Levada are old friends, and Levada met with the pope on May 3, fueling speculation that he was on the short list for the job.