• Pope John Paul flagellated himself, new book says

The late Pope John Paul flagellated himself regularly to emulate Christ's suffering and signed a secret document saying that would resign instead of ruling for life if he became incurably ill, a new book shows.WORLDThe book, called "Why a Saint? was written by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Vatican official in charge of the process that could lead to Roman Catholic sainthood for John Paul. It includes some previously unpublished documents.