VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II's funeral was barely underway when the cardinals seated near his casket got the first insistent message from the huge crowd below. "Santo Subito," said the 15-foot banner unfurled in St. Peter's Square.
Roughly translated from Italian, it means "Sainthood Now."
Soon an identical sign popped up farther back in the crowd, followed by several minutes of cheering, rhythmic applause and shouts of "Saint John Paul!" By the end of the Mass, seven such banners were visible from the outdoor altar, each bearing the same slogan of a grass-roots movement advocating the late Roman Catholic leader's swift sanctification.
"We all saw them," Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of Washington, D.C., said after the service. "The message was clear. The people think he was a saint."
Support for John Paul's canonization "is like a tidal wave," said Cardinal Adam Maida of Detroit. "It's going to come."
Vatican officials cautioned Friday that their procedure for elevating the dead to saintly status was cumbersome and could last decades. Any shortcuts, they said, would require a decision by John Paul's successor, whom the cardinals expect to elect this month.
But in the meantime, a popular cult of sainthood is burgeoning just a week after the pope's death. Vendors in Rome, using the Polish pontiff's given name, are selling T-shirts proclaiming, "Saint Karol." Makeshift shrines have sprung up near St. Peter's, attracting handwritten notes referring in Christ-like terms to the pope's long battle against a host of infirmities.
"The people are way ahead of the church on this," Father Henri Guglielo, a parish priest from suburban Paris, said as he left the funeral Mass.
Friday's pro-sainthood demonstration showed some signs of organization and looked strongest in a section of Polish pilgrims. The "Santo Subito" banners were of identical size and lettering, varying only in color.
Yet the movement itself is broad and seems primarily spontaneous, reflecting the globe-trotting pontiff's contact with and enduring effect on millions during his 26-year reign.
"He is already a saint in our hearts," said Elena Ramos, a black-clad Filipina, as she filed out of the square Friday. "He always was."
Seven time zones away in Mexico, high school student Heron Badillo, 19, was up at 3 a.m. to watch the funeral on TV. He met John Paul 15 years ago when the pope landed in the city of Zacatecas and blessed the sickly boy during an airport ceremony.
