Pope joins Poles in calling for sainthood for John Paul

KRAKOW, Poland (AP) -- Pope Benedict XVI stoked Poles' fervent hopes that John Paul II will be declared a saint, telling people in the late pontiff's native region Saturday that he hopes for canonization "in the near future."
Benedict's encouraging remark generated a roar of applause from the 15,000 people gathered at a shrine outside Krakow, the city where John Paul served as archbishop before becoming pope.
Honoring John Paul is a major theme of Benedict's four-day trip to Poland, where the cause of John Paul's sainthood is extremely popular. Some hoped Benedict might make the official announcement during the trip.
Benedict, standing next to John Paul's former secretary, Krakow's Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz outdoors at the Kalwaria Zebrzydowska shrine, said: "Your Cardinal Stanislaw expresses the hope, as do I, that in the short future we will be able to enjoy the beatification and canonization of John Paul II."
Benedict earlier visited John Paul's nearby birthplace of Wadowice, where he joined townspeople's prayers for sainthood.
A large banner reading "Wadowice Prays For Sainthood Immediately, John Paul II the Great" in Italian and Polish hung in the packed square in front of the church where John Paul was baptized. Benedict said he shared the people's cause.
"I wished to stop precisely here, in the place where his faith began and matured, to pray together with all of you that he may soon be elevated to the glory of the altars," Benedict told some 30,000 people there.