John Paul II was responsible for the “miraculous” cure of a Jewish-American millionaire who was dying of a brain tumor, it was claimed yesterday, as the campaign to set the late pope on the fast-track to sainthood got under way.

Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, the Pope’s long-standing private secretary, made the claim in interviews with the Italian press three years ago in the understanding that they would only be published after the pope’s death.

The La Stampa and Il Giornale newspapers reported that Archbishop Dziwisz, a Pole, said that, in 1998, an acquaintance had asked him if an American friend dying from a brain tumor could meet the pontiff.

The man had three wishes: to see the pope, to go on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and to return home to America to die.

What the acquaintance omitted to say, however, was that he was Jewish.

The pope, then staying at his summer retreat south of Rome, said a private Mass at which the sick man took Communion.

A few weeks later, the archbishop’s acquaintance rang him to say that the tumor “had completely disappeared in the space of just a few hours.”

In his account, the archbishop did not speak of a miracle but of a sign of “the supreme power of God, which surpassed all human understanding.”

He added that he had “gently chided” the American for taking Communion, a sacrament reserved for Catholics.

In the end, the American decided not to go on to Jerusalem, but returned to America, to celebrate his cure with his family.

La Stampa said yesterday that the Vatican had compiled a dossier of other reported “miracles” apparently worked around the world by John Paul II.

Yet, all the cures, as that of the American, appear to have occurred during the pope’s lifetime, making them inadmissible for a cause for beatification, the last major stop on the road to sainthood.

For beatification, a miracle occurring after a candidate’s death is required, to show that he is already in heaven, where he may intercede on a person’s behalf with God.

Despite this, yesterday’s reports suggested that there will now be intense pressure for a cause to be quickly opened for John Paul II – at whose funeral thousands of pilgrims chanted “santo, santo!”

The Vatican said at the weekend that a decision in favor of the pope’s eventual fast-track beatification would be the “exclusive competence” of his successor.

Under Church rules, five years must pass after a candidate’s death before a cause may be opened.

However the pope waived this for Mother Teresa’s cause.