There is money to be made from faith and belief, and nowhere was that more evident, it seems, than at a recent religious marketing expo in Cleveland:

“As far as T-shirts go, you can’t beat Pope John Paul,” said Dominic Scarnecchia, who was hawking his wares at the Catholic Marketing Network’s international trade show here in late July.

Scarnecchia is a sales associate with “Catholic to the Max,” a hip division of Nelson Woodcraft, a family-owned business that sells Catholic gift items in Steubenville, Ohio.

A student at Franciscan University in Steubenville, he could easily be working the floor at Abercrombie & Fitch or Old Navy, but instead, he was hawking “Get Holy or Die Tryin’ ” and “Puttin’ the STUD back in Bible study” license plate frames and messenger bags.

“You have to start with the youth,” Scarnecchia said. “It’s the future of the Catholic church, like Pope John Paul said.”

Judging by some of the paraphernalia offered to retailers at the trade show, one thing is clear: Pope John Paul II is as big as Bono.

A photo of him before he became bishop of Rome, in which he is wearing shades, a beret and a slightly devilish smile graces coffee mugs, T-shirts and key chains.

“Is that JP II?” yelped a young woman working the entrance of the recent International Exposition Center in Cleveland, which housed nearly 60 exhibitors for four days. She had spotted an “Xtreme Papa” dog tag around a guest’s neck. “I love JP II! I bawled my eyes out when he died.”

“Papa Ben” merchandise, featuring current pontiff Pope Benedict XVI, doesn’t move as well.

While traditional religious artifacts were in evidence — crucifixes and giant praying hands “handmade in the Holy Land,” heavy embroidered vestments, glow-in-the-dark Fatima statues from Portugal — there was a decided whiff of Madison Avenue at the 2007 Expo.

Like the Wearable Service Rosary, also known as the “tough guy rosary necklace” made with a safety break-away clasp. Why? Because traditional rosaries, strung onto piano wire-like thread, can be used to choke troops in hand-to-hand combat, explained Dede Laugesen of The Rosary Project. There have been no such reports, but “it could happen,” she said. Introduced in November, the Wearable Service Rosaries are “selling like hotcakes.”

The Boulder, Colo., company also markets rosaries for jocks; strung among the plastic beads are tiny baseballs, basketballs or footballs.

Department of Full Disclosure: I have a couple “Catholic to the Max” tee shirts myself. (“Catholic Original: Est. 33 AD” is a particular favorite of mine.)