As I understand it, the power a pope has to declare someone a saint is tied to Jesus's telling Peter that whatever Peter "bound on Earth would be bound in Heaven". The Pope is said by those in the Roman Catholic church to be in the line of Peter and thus able to declare someone to be a saint. The CBC has an article declaring that Pope John Paul II will get his ride to sainthood sped up.

VATICAN CITY - Pope Benedict XVI is fast-tracking his predecessor's nomination for sainthood, telling clergy in Rome Friday that the traditional five-year waiting period will be waived for John Paul II.

It strikes me as odd to have what is supposed to be a special authority bestowed on the Pope by God become manifest as a beaurocratic process that can be fast-tracked.

To be declared a saint by the Pope, a person is required to perform a miracle from beyond the grave. I wonder what miracles John Paul will do post-ascendum. Hopefully he will come through with one or two. Otherwise he'd be slowing down the fast-tracking.

Or perhaps, like Peter, the current Pope will have a vision in which he is told that now that Christ has risen there is no longer a distinction between Jew and Gentile, slave or free, ordinary believer and saint. Perhaps, as with Peter's vision, if such a dream came to the current Pope he'd have to see it in re-run several times before he saw through the veil of tradition.

Acts 10:34 Then Peter began to speak: "I now realize how true it is that God does not show favouritism but accepts men from every nation who fear him and do what is right.