CALLS are being made for a football-mad cleric who was known as the quiet man of God to be sainted.

In June, it will be the fifth anniversary of Cardinal Basil Hume's death and the point at which the Vatican can start looking at possible canonisation.

Some of the most influential figures in the Catholic Church are already talking about making him a saint.

Basil Hume became Archbishop of Westminster, the most powerful position within the Catholic Church in England, and at one time he was even mentioned as a possible successor to the Pope.

Hexham and Newcastle Bishop Ambrose Griffiths said: "I would be delighted and excited if he were to be made a saint.

"It would be a joy to Newcastle to have him as a saint and the application would definitely have my support. But he was the last person to wish to be put up on a pedestal and I think he would be pretty taken aback by talk of making him a saint."

Since school, Basil Hume was a devoted Newcastle United fan, and club chairman Freddy Shepherd said: "We were honoured and proud to have Basil on board with us."

Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe said: "I saw him quite a lot during the crisis when the Church of England was split over the issue of woman priests, but unlike other people he didn't turn it into a political issue and I was impressed by his shear holiness."

Basil Hume's former diocese, Westminster or Ampleforth in Yorkshire, could take up an application for sainthood and gather evidence in support of it.

But Christine Westmacott, elder sister of Basil Hume, said: "I think he would laugh about this if he were here now. It was actually very unexpected that he became an archbishop. People could get very carried away with this but he was a person who was born with many gifts."