The increasingly frail 84-year-old pontiff defies his infirmities

The indefatigable Pope John Paul II conducts his weekly general audience Wednesday in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican. Pope John Paul II, the 263rd successor to St. Peter, marks the 26th anniversary of his election Saturday. It's one more milestone for the third-longest pontificate in history. John Paul's first words as pope when he was inaugurated on Oct. 22, 1978, were "Be not afraid." Now his unofficial slogan seems to be "Never stop." Despite his much-noted physical infirmities, he just released his 44th apostolic letter, intended to serve as the instructive and philosophical underpinning for his yearlong focus on the Eucharist, the consecrated bread and wine used for Holy Communion. And the philosophical pontiff, born Karol Wojtyla in Poland on May 18, 1920, also is about the publish his fifth book, "Memory and Identity," to be released next spring. It is drawn from edited transcripts of his 1993 dialogs with two Polish friends, both professors. In announcing the book last week, the Vatican released this brief excerpt from the pope's reflections on democracy, liberty and human rights: "Sometimes evil, in certain moments of human existence, reveals itself as useful. Useful in the measure in which it creates an occasion to do good."