Wait and see.

I haven't really seen much about this on the usual Catholic blogs:

Pope John Paul II 'whipped himself in remorse for sins'

I think I'll wait on commenting about it for a couple reasons.

First, I believe that JPII was an extremely holy person, so even if the world sees this as a sign of Catholic weirdness, I'll trust in the obvious sanctity.

Second, the story is just kind of sketchy. I'm not saying that they're lying, but both "eyewitnesses" say in the story that they never actually saw any of this.

I will say this: there is nothing inherently wrong with physical mortification. Our culture celebrates people who push themselves to extremes to perfect their bodies, but looks down on things that people do to strengthen their souls. John Paul the Great is someone who had his priorities straight.