PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II watches a girl wearing traditional dress during an open air mass celebrated in central Astana 23 September 2001. The 81-year-old Pontiff is at the second day of his visit to Kazakhstan and Armenia.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II concentrates 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 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 waves from the airplane shortly after his arrival at Astana's airport 22 September 2001. The 81-year-old Pontiff begins today a six-day visit to Kazakhstan and Armenia. AFP PHOTO/REUTERS POOL/PAOLO COCCO/ad-ms

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP PHOTO An official introduces representatives of religions to Pope John Paul II during his meeting with the Panukrainian Council of Religions in Kiev, 24 June 2001, on the second day of his five-day visit in Ukraine. On the left with a white barb is the Orthodox Patriarch of Ukraine Filarete.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/ WOJTEK LASKI 94. podroz apostolska papieza Jana Pawla II, Ukraina, 24.06.2001, Kijow. N/z: papiez Jan Pawel II podczas spotkania z przedstawicielami roznych wyznan i kosciolow i organizacji religijnych JUNE 24, 2001 KYIV, UKRAINE THE POPE MEETS OTHER RELIGIONS' REPRESENTATIVES Pope John Paul II on the meeting with representatives of the Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations, in the building of National Philharmonic Society in Kiev. Keeping up his tone of atonement for Catholic inaction to stop the Holocaust, Pope John Paul II on Sunday condemned Nazi massacres and said Jews endured suffering and injustice throughout the ages only because they were faithful to their religion.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/WOJTEK LASKI 94. podroz apostolska papieza Jana Pawla II, Ukraina, 23.06.2001, Kijow. N/z: papiez podczas nakladania piuski - uroczyste powitanie na lotnisku Boryspol JUNE 23, 2001 KIEV, UKRAINE JOHN PAUL II AT THE GREETING CEREMONY IN KYIV Pope John Paul II is greeted by Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma at the Kiev Boyspil international airport Saturday, June 23, 2001. Pope John Paul II arrived in Ukraine for a five-day visit that will take him to Kiev and Lviv.

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 PHOTO Pope John Paul II attends a meeting with young people at the Cathedral of the Dormition, the Greek Catholic patriarchate, in Damascus 07 May 2001.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP PHOTO Pope John Paul II celebrates the mass of beatification of Spanish Manuel Gonzalez Garcia, Maria Anna Blondin from Quebec, Puerto Rican Carlos Manuel Rodriguez Santiago, Italians Caterina Volpicelli and Caterina Cittadini on Saint Peter Square in Vatcan 29 April 2001.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP PHOTO Pope John Paul II blesses the pilgrims as he arrives at his weekly general audience, in Saint Peter Square in Vatican, 21 March 2001.

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II blesses the pilgrims during his last general audience of the Jubilee Year in Saint Peter Square in Vatican, 03 January 2001. Pope John Paul II will close the Holy Door next saturday 06 January 2001. AFP PHOTO GABRIEL BOUYS

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II prays during his last general audience of the Jubilee Year in Saint Peter Square in Vatican, 03 January 2001. Pope John Paul II will close the Holy Door next saturday 06 January 2001. AFP PHOTO GABRIEL BOUYS

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II is helped to put on his hat during his weekly general audience, in Saint Peter Square in Vatican, 15 November 2000. AFP PHOTO GABRIEL BOUYS

PHOTO: EAST NEWS/AFP Pope John Paul II gestures 15 November 2000 during his weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square in the Vatican. AFP PHOTO GABRIEL BOUYS

Pope John Paul II leads the Rosary in front of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Saturday, October 7, 2000. The statue was brought from Portugal on Friday and will be on display in St. Peter's Basilica until Sunday. (AP Photo/Plinio Lepri)

Pope John Paul II, prays holding a cross during the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) torchlight procession on Good Friday in front of the Colosseum in Rome, Friday, April 13, 2001. The 80-year-old pontiff did not walk around the whole Colosseum but watched most of the traditional Via Crucis procession kneeling for the first time in his 22-year papacy. (AP Photo/Dylan Martinez, Pool)

Pope John Paul II celebrates Mass of beatification for the two shepherd children, Saturday May 13, 2000, in Fatima, Portugal. Pope John Paul II is on a 24-hours visit to beatify the shepherd children, Francesco and Jacinta Marto, who said the Virgin Mary appeared to them and their cousin Lucia in 1917. The shepherd children died of pneumonia two years after the visions, at the ages of 9 and 11. (AP Photo/Gabriel Bouys, Pool)

PHOTO: EAST NEWS PAPIEZ JAN PAWEL II OBMYWA NOGI DUCHOWNEGO PODCZAS WIELKIEGO CZWARTKU W WATYKANIE Pope john Paul II washes the foot of an unidentified clergyman during the Holy Thursday Mass rite of the washing of feet in St Peter's Basilica, at the Vatican 20 April 2000. The rite evokes Jesus' washing of the apostles' feet the day before his crucifixion, and is maintained by the church as a symbol of humility. The Pontif celebrated the Holy Thursday Mass that marks the start of four-day Easter celebrations. (ELECTRONIC IMAGE)

PHOTO: EAST NEWS PAPIEZ JAN PAWEL II CALUJE NOGI DUCHOWNEGO PODCZAS WIELKIEGO CZWARTKU W WATYKANIE Pope John Pope II kisses the foot of an unidentified clergyman during the Holy Thursday Mass rite of the washing of feet in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican 20 April 2000. The rite evokes Jesus' washing of the apostles' feet the day before his crucifixion, and is maintained by the church as a symbol of humility. The Pontiff celebrated the Holy Thursday Mass that marks the start of a four-day Easter celebrations.