John Paul said: “I want you to know how I have looked forward to this meeting with you, especially with those of you who are sick, disabled or infirm. I myself have had a share in suffering and I have known the physical weakness that comes with injury and sickness.” Author Peter Jennings was following the papal party for his book The Pope in Britain: “He’d a great empathy with sick people – he was very close to the people who were suffering, and you could see that just by the way he was walking around, stopping and talking to people and blessing people.”