Vatican City - 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.
For someone to be canonized a saint, the Vatican must verify two miracles attributed to them, and even then the process can take centuries. But with millions of people paying homage to John Paul, the start of Roman Catholicism's saint-making machine seems almost inevitable.
The Rev. Peter Gumpel, who is spearheading the cause for sainthood for another pope, Pius XII, said Thursday that he considers John Paul worthy and that it is likely the case will be 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. The nun 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 pope, but he scoffed at speculation John Paul's successor might skip the beatification process and immediately proceed to canonization.
"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 is 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" — "Thank You Saint Father" — is plastered on Via della Conciliazione, the main boulevard leading to St. Peter's Square.
Italian newspapers are already reporting supposed miraculous events attributed to John Paul's intercession — even though he has only been dead a week. To be valid, a miracle must occur after death.
"He moved the Berlin Wall. He won over communism. He united not just Poles but the entire Christian world through his words and this is a miracle," said Ewa Cywinska, 20, a student who was praying Thursday at Saint Ann's church in Warsaw.
"I am certain he will be beatified," Cywinska said.
As far as the Vatican is concerned, Cardinal Angelo Sodano appeared to have jump-started the process Sunday when he called the pope in his written homily "John Paul the Great." The title is usually designated for popes worthy of sainthood, such as Gregory the Great and Leo the Great.
While Sodano didn't use the title when he delivered his homily, Vatican texts are considered official even if they are not pronounced. The official Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano picked up on it in its following editions, referring to "John Paul II, the Great."
Archbishop Edward Nowak, secretary of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, called John Paul an "extraordinary example" of saints among us during a panel discussion on RAI state television.
"The saintliness of the pope is in how he led his life — his faith and compassion day after day," Nowak said.
Chicago Cardinal Francis George said he hadn't heard talk among his fellow cardinals about a fast-track to sainthood for John Paul. But, he added, "That wouldn't surprise me at all."
"I think there would be a lot of support for it," George added.
If the five-year rule is bypassed, Gumpel said, the Vatican could proceed directly to the beatification procedure: collecting all John Paul's private writings and his published works before he became pope and submitting them to theological experts to determine whether he had written anything heretical.
A commission of historians would then be appointed to collect all the documentation concerning his life and sanctity that would be synthesized into volumes for consideration by separate panels of theologians and of cardinals and bishops.
The panels also consider testimony from witnesses who appear before church tribunals.
If a two-thirds majority of both panels approved the cause, it would go to the pope to decide and sign a decree on the virtues of John Paul.
Only then would there be any discussion of miracles attributable to the late pope, Gumpel said.