Pope Francis’s devoted faithful will likely soon be hollering for the late, humble, huddled-masses-loving pontiff to be fast-tracked to sainthood, experts said Tuesday.
But his fans should expect it to take at least five years — and possibly longer — to canonize the Argentine-born pontiff, if it even happens.
When Pope John Paul II died in 2005, his funeral was rocked by chants of “Santo Subito!” or “Saint Right Away!” — and it still took nine years, and Francis’s election, before the Polish-born pontiff, along with predecessor Pope John XXIII, were declared saints.
Francis, who died early Monday at age 88, was immensely popular with rank-and-file Catholics, who loved his common touch and compassion for children, prisoners, refugees and the elderly. The late pope’s openness to LGBTQ Catholics also spawned admiration in many circles as well.
But his 12-year pontificate was marked by occasional scandal, too.
Marko Rupnik, a former member of Francis’s own Jesuit order and a priest in Slovenia, is alleged to have raped women under his spiritual care. While Francis in 2023 allowed a Vatican department to investigate the cleric, the pope was also blamed for earlier foot-dragging on the case.
There also was the case of dodgy Vatican investments.
And the Church under Francis was still reeling from the years-long,widespread sex-abuse scandal involving Catholic priests.
But Hofstra religion professor Phyllis Zagano told The Post that the church officials might move ahead with sainthood for Francis — and more quickly than usual.
“I think we’re looking at something more organic from the times of the early church, where if people want to acclaim him as a saint, they will and then let the church catch up,” she said.
Still, the Rev. Patrick S.L. Flanagan, a Vincentian priest who grew up in Wantaugh, LI, said he’s not immediately hearing the same quick calls for Francis’s elevation to sainthood that followed Pope John Paul II’s death.
“I think people are still in shock, yeah, I think they’re still overwhelmed by the fact that they saw this man pressing the flesh on Sunday, and all of a sudden on Monday morning, they wake up” to learn of Francis’s death, he said.
But Flanagan, who now chairs the theology and religious studies department at St. John’s University in Queens, also said the case for Francis’s sainthood might survive scandals such as the Rupnik case and that of Vatican finances.
“A saint is a person who dreams with their eyes wide open,” he said. Francis, “dreamed in a way that challenged us to think beyond our echo chambers and to think beyond our, you know, historical realities.”
One of Francis’s Jesuit peers, the Rev. Thomas J. Reese, was less thrilled about the prospect of another “Saint Francis.”
“I am against canonizing popes. But I lost that battle,” said Reese, a Religion News Service columnist, to The Post in an email.
“I would not be surprised if he and Benedict were canonized on the same day, just as John XXIII was canonized with John Paul II. That is how the Vatican fosters unity in the Church.”