Pope Benedict XVI today said that his predecessor, John Paul II, had "supernatural qualities".

Speaking at a mass in St Peter's Square, marking the third anniversary of John Paul's death, the Pope said: "Among many human and supernatural qualities, he had an exceptional spiritual and mystical sensibility."

Pope Benedict, who shortly after his election put John Paul on the path to sainthood by waiving the five year waiting period before a beatification cause can be opened, said: "We relive with emotion the hours of that Saturday evening when the news of his death was announced to the great crowd which filled St Peter's Square ... Let us give thanks to the Lord for having given to the Church this faithful and brave servant."

The Congregation for the Causes of Saints is examining miracles attributed to the late Pope's intercession as part of the beatification process, the step before sainthood.

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Father Slawomir Oder, the postulator of the cause, said that he was drawing up a 2,000 page "definitive summary" of a dossier, or positio, on John Paul's life.

The prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints, Cardinal José Saraiva Martins, said that the Vatican wanted to beatify John Paul as soon as possible. He said this was a response to the cries of "santo subito" at John Paul's funeral.

The Vatican is reported to be considering moving John Paul's tomb from the crypt of St Peter's to the Basilica above, and may exhume the body for display to pilgrims in a glass casket after beatification is approved. However, Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said that "no decision on the matter will be made before beatification".

Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of St. Peter's Basilica, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa that the tomb of John Paul could be moved to a chapel on the right hand side of the Basilica, near the entrance and next to the chapel containing Michelangelo's statue of the Pieta.

Cardinal Saraiva Martins said that a glass casket "would be a way to make him closer and more visible to the thousands of faithful from all over the world who come every day to pray at his tomb". His face would be covered with a wax mask, "as has been done with other saints".

The diocesan phase of the beatification cause opened in Rome in June 2005 and was concluded in April last year. The next step is for the Congregation for the Causes of Saints to conclude that John Paul had "heroic virtues" and for Pope Benedict to issue a decree proclaiming his predecessor " venerable".

Celebrations and commemorations making the third anniversary of Pope John Paul II's death also took place in Poland today, with Poles praying for his swift beatification and canonisation.

Francesco Pasanisi, the senior Italian police officer who covered John Paul II's body with his own to protect him when the pontiff was shot by a Turkish gunman on St Peter's Square in May 1981, said that he had preserved his blood stained trousers unwashed, because "I knew in my heart they would become a relic."

He said that he had been offered money for the trousers, but had refused to sell them. "One does not joke about such things. This was the blood of a saint," he told Il Messaggero, the Rome daily. He said that he had given evidence for the beatification dossier on his "many years" at John Paul's side.

"Without a shadow of doubt this was an exceptional man, out of the ordinary," he said. "What struck me above all was his capacity to penetrate the human soul. He had a magnetic personality". Mr Pasanisi said he believed that Mehmet Ali Agca, the would-be assassin, had acted alone. The fact that John Paul had later visited Agca in his prison cell and forgiven him "confirms his stature. Only a saint could have done that."