Benedict hopes John Paul moves fast to sainthood

WADOWICE, Poland, May 27 (Reuters) Pope Benedict paid an emotional visit to the birthplace of his predecessor John Paul today and told Poles he was praying that their favourite son would move swiftly towards Catholic sainthood.

John Paul II Square, the heart of this small town in the foothills of southern Poland's Tatra mountains, was packed with cheering faithful who came to see the German-born Pope at the most sentimental stop on his four-day pilgrimage here.

The 30,000-strong crowd chanted hymns, waved Vatican and Polish flags and held up banners reading ''Santo Subito'' (Make him a saint now) in Italian and translated into Polish.

Standing before the Baroque church where John Paul was baptised and served as an altar boy, Benedict asked the crowd to pray for him as they did for the charismatic pontiff he called his great predecessor and their great fellow Pole.

''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,'' he said.

That phrase, which refers to both beatification the last step before sainthood and canonisation as a saint, was Benedict's first mention on his trip of his support for the honours to John Paul that Polish Catholics are eagerly awaiting.

Benedict put John Paul on the fast track to sainthood only a month after being elected to succeed him in April 2005.

While his case is moving ahead quickly, the Church requires proof of one miracle due to a candidate's intercession after death for beatification and proof of a second one for sainthood.

A French nun has claimed to have been inexplicably cured of Parkinson's disease the same affliction that struck John Paul in his final years after praying to the late pope.

VISITS CHURCH AND HOME Addressing Benedict, Krakow Cardinal Stanislaw Dziwisz, John Paul's long-time personal secretary, said Poland greeted him ''with the same joy that we greeted the great John Paul''.

''We can be sure that our beloved Pope is standing in the window of God's house and is watching us now,'' he said.

Benedict, who has avoided speaking his native German so as not to offend Polish and Jewish sensitivities, recalled the German writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said one had to visit a poet's native land to understand his work properly.

''This is also true for those who wish to understand the life and ministry of John Paul,'' he said.

Before addressing the crowd, Benedict prayed in the church and toured a museum next door housing the two-room flat where Karol Wojtyla lived during his childhood years.

Benedict's tour aims to honour John Paul and build a rapport with Poland, a deeply Catholic country that both he and his predecessor have said should strive to help revive Christian beliefs and values in an increasingly secular Europe.

He has reached out to crowds by delivering speeches partly in Polish and recalling his long-serving predecessor, beloved by his compatriots for inspiring their fight against communism.

Later today, he was due to visit shrines in Kalwaria Zebrzydowska and Lagiewniki, near Krakow, where John Paul often went to pray.

REUTERS SY PM1556