Blessed John Paul II was the first Roman Pontiff ever to allow the world to scrutinise him so closely in his physical failings. Perhaps the key to this lack of fear in the face of suffering lay in his great faith. Already in New Zealand back in 1986 he gave us a clue of this firmness in faith while meeting with some of the frailer members of society when he said : " It was the suffering and death of Christ which displayed the works of God most eloquently ". Five years before he pronounced these words this Polish Pope, once an energetic sportsman brimming with health, had suddenly closed ranks with these frailer members of society. It's a well- known story, one sprung on us, on a sunny and relaxed Spring afternoon in May 1981. The Pope stands Samson like and agile in his white cassock on a white jeep, in a crowded Saint Peter's Square, athletically reaching out to make physical contact with as many pilgrims as possible, when out of the blue gun shots...