A View From The Flock

His doctors had told him to skip St. Louis; and by the final day of John Paul's visit it was clear why. At a prayer service in the city's beautiful basilica he coughed--not continuously, but so deeply that his body jumped forward slightly. His speech, clear enough at a youth rally the night before to elicit roars of laughter, was more slurred. A short prayer he should have spoken was assumed by an assistant.

But there were also reasons why a frail 78-year-old with Parkinson's spent two hectic days in the river city. One was that by hopping from deeply...