PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II holds his staff decorated with an olive branch during the Palm Sunday mass in St. Peter's Square, 24 March 2002. A weak looking Pope John Paul II presided at the Palm Sunday Mass but for the first time in his pontificate delegated a cardinal to celebrate a major Easter season event for him.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP PAPIEZ JAN PAWEL II BIBLIA W BAZYLICE SW PIOTRA W DNIU WIGILII 1999 ROKU WATYKAN 24/12/1999 Pope John Paul II is helped as he shows the Holy Book under the Holy Door in Saint Peter Basilica for the last time before the start of the third millennium and kicks off Holy Year celebrations on Christmas Eve, late 24 December 1999 before the midnight mass. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE)

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II arrives in St Peter's square for his weekly general audience 15 October 2003. Thousands of Roman Catholic pilgrims packed St Peter's Square in the Vatican to hear Pope John Paul II give his last audience before celebrations to mark his 25 years on the papal throne.The hunched-over pope, crippled by Parkinson's disease that has left his movement severely restricted, waved to cheering pilgrims as he was driven around the square in front of Saint Peter's Basilica.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II blesses pilgrims and faithfull from the altar before celebrate mass to mark the 25th anniversary of the Holy Father's election in St. Peter's square 16 October 2003 . . Almost all the 195 cardinals of the Catholic Church, as well as archbishops, bishops and heads of Vatican dicasteries, are in Rome for a congress of the Church being held in tandem with the anniversary celebrations.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II looks on during his weekly general audience, 26 March 2003, in Saint Peter's Square in Vatican. Pope John Paul II gave pilgrims a rare glimpse of his personal "anguish" over the war in Iraq as they gathered in St Peter's Square for his weekly general audience.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II blesses the pilgrims in the Chapel of Apparition in Fatima 12 May 2000. Pope John Paul II is in Portugal for the beatification of the two dead shepherd children, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, who were witness to the Fatima miracle (the Virgin Mary was said to have appeared to the children and given them three messages) in 1917 along with their cousin Lucia Dos Santos, who is now 93 years old and lives as a nun.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS JAN PAWEL II PODCZAS BEATYFIKACJI PIUSA IX I JANA XXII NA PLACU SW PIOTRA W WATYKANIE Pope John Paul II celebrates the mass of beatification of popes Pius IX and John XXIII 03 September 2000 in Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican. John Paul II also beatified French Guillaume Chaminade, an early 19th-century monk from Perigueux, as well as Franco-Irish Benedictine monk Joseph Marmion, who died in Belgium in 1923. AFP PHOTO GABRIEL BOUYS

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP PHOTO Pope John Paul II listens to a welcoming speech by Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo in Rio de Janeiro 03 October. The Pope is on a four day visit to Brazil.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP A dove takes flight over Pope John Paul II after it was released at the conclusion of his Mass at Manila's Luneta Park 15 January. Papal officials said the crowd was the largest ever to see the 74-year-old pontiff. (COLOR KEY: Hat has red trim.) AFP PHOTO

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II pauses moments before closing the holy door of Saint Peter's Basilica 06 January 2001 to symbolically wind up the Jubilee 2000 celebrations which coincided with the Catholic holy year. The door will remain sealed by a brick wall until 2025 when Catholics are expected to celebrate their next Holy Year. AFP PHOOTO MASSIMO SAMBUCETTI

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II closes the Holy Door of Saint Peter's Basilica 06 January 2001, symbolically ending the Jubilee 2000 celebrations which coincided with the Catholic Holy Year. The Door will remain sealed by a brick wall until 2025 when Catholics are expected to celebrate their next Holy Year.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP PHOTO Pope John Paul II waves his skull cap at the crowd at the Papal welcoming ceremony in Toronto 25 July, 2002. The Pope is in Toronto for the 17th World Youth Day.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP PHOTO Pope John Paul II arrives 24 May 2001 for a solemn mass in Saint Peter's Basilica ending the consistory, the meeting drawing on a tradition that dates to 1141. More than 160 of the 183 current cardinals from all five continents, have begun a four-day meeting in the synod hall inside the Vatican, to discuss the future of the Roman Catholic Church,The agenda for this meeting has been "the future of the Church at the beginning of the new millennium". The consistory is an ancient form of Church government revived by Pope John Paul II at the beginning of his pontificate. VATICAN CITY, 24 May 2001.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II sits during an open air mass celebrated in central Astana 23 September 2001. The 81-year-old Pontiff is on the second day of his visit to Kazakhstan and Armenia. AFP PHOTO REUTERS POOL/PAOLO COCCO

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II prays during an open mass celebrated in central Astana 23 September 2001. The 81-year-old Pontiff is on the second day of his visit to Kazakhstan and Armenia. AFP PHOTO REUTERS POOL/PAOLO COCCO

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II blesses a faithful 03 July 1986 in Bogota prior to celebrate an open-air mass during his Pastoral visit to Colombia from 01 to 08 July 1986 (his 30th International Pastoral visit).

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP (FILES) Pope John Paul II is seen in this file picture taken 06 July 1986 in Armero as he prays at the base of a cross memorial dedicated to the more than 23,000 people who died in November 1985 when the Nevado del Ruiz volcano erupted.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP PHOTO Pope John Paul II blesses the Christ on the cross 28 April 1989 during an open-air mass in Antanarivo at the beginning of a 10-day Africa tour. The pontiff visited Madagascar, La R??union, Zambia and Malawi from 28 April to 06 May. It was his 41st International Pastoral visit.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP PHOTO Pope John Paul II salutes some 50.000 faithful 23 March in Kubwa, near the Nigerian capital of Abuja, as a nigerian soldier looks on. The pontiff launched another forceful defence of human rights, on the final day of a three-day pastoral visit. He also lectured Roman Catholics in Africa's most populous nation, facing severe challenges on both the democratic and the AIDS fronts, on the importance of family values and the "inviolability" of life.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP PHOTO Pope John Paul II blesses the crowd from the top of the altar as he prepare to celebrate a mass in Krakow's Blonie ground 18 August 2002. The pope, who will visit his parent's graves later on Sunday, looked somewhat tired during the mass but completed the three-hour service.