As captivating in death as he was in life

BLESSED John Paul II was a colossus for more than 26 years both in the Catholic Church and in the wider world.

Perhaps more than any other pope in history he lived his uncompromising faith in the public gaze and challenged Catholics and non-Catholics alike to take up the gauntlet of building a world based on what he described as the civilisation of love.

His beatification in Rome just six years after his death marks another milestone on a remarkable life journey from repression under Nazi and communist totalitarianism in his native Poland to becoming one the best-known figures in the world.