“Why the sudden switch to high speed canonizations?”
Two miracles have been attributed to J2P. In the case of Pope John the 23rd Benedict waived the requirement of a second miracle. I don’t call a 50 year wait as speeding up a process, and I guess that’s the main reason he decided to ahead and canonize Pope John.
Fifty years is a relatively short period of time (and less than ten years in the case of JPII was incredibly hasty). Waiving requirements is clearly speeding up the process. Why has this been done? It only serves to raise doubts and questions, and makes these speedy canonizations appear highly political.