For one, the pontiff may have performed a miracle in 1998, according to Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, his long-time secretary. Dziwisz told Italian newspapers that a wealthy American Jew recovered from incurable cancer that year - after John Paul had given him Holy Communion.

The crowds at the Pope's funeral on Friday chanted "Subito Santo" ("make him a saint"). Since then, many Catholics around the world have joined that chorus, according to a Reuters report.

One of the prerequisites for sainthood is that the candidate performed a miracle.

Dziwisz told two papers, La Stampa and Il Giornale, that the American Jew whose cancer was cured was allowed to attend a private papal mass in 1998, although he was later admonished for taking communion as a non-Catholic.

He said the man was dying of a brain tumor.

"A few weeks later a friend phoned me to say that the tumour disappeared within a few hours," Dziwisz said.

La Repubblica newspaper reported on another possible miracle, relating the story of Brasilian Cardinal Francesco Marchisano, who recovered his speech after the Pope touched his throat.

Then there's the story of a Mexican boy suffering from terminal leukaemia, who is said to have recovered after meeting the Pope in May 1990; and a 16-year-old from Poland who reported being cured of a life-threatening lymph gland cancer, according to Reuters.

Church procedures dicate that the process of sainthood cannot start until five years after a candidate's death. But apparently John Paul himself didn't see that rule as an obstacle: He granted a dispensation in 1999 to let Mother Teresa's sainthood cause start only two years after her death, Reuters reported.

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