Of all the many Easter Masses conducted in St Peter's Square over the centuries there can have been none quite like the one witnessed in Rome yesterday. The service was dominated by a man who was only part of it formally for just a few minutes, but whose presence, or lack of it, was the very essence of the occasion. When John Paul II finally appeared at the window of his private apartment, his courage, determination, and also his evident suffering, were undeniable. He strained to breathe, struggled to do more than whisper into a microphone and found the smallest gesture of his hands a burden. Many of the faithful who had come to this service in the hope of seeing him must also have wished, in a sense, that they had not done so. This was a Mass of the body and blood of Christ but also of widespread tears for the ailing yet heroic Pontiff.

The numbing power of this spectacle is made sharper by memories of the untypical strength that this Pope once brought to his position. To see a man of such vigour, the first Pontiff to take himself out into every corner of the world, in this condition is especially saddening. That a Pope who once spoke for millions of the oppressed — and in eastern Europe was the catalyst for their liberation — is incapable of forming a sentence for himself is a cruel and searing irony. The Vatican is plainly capable of functioning with its leader in such a distressed state; the Secretary of State, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, undertook the Pontiff's duties with authority and an admirable calm dignity. Yet his own deep concern for the Pope was obvious yesterday as well.

This brief appearance will inevitably revive the debate as to whether resignation would be the kindest course of action for John Paul II personally and for the Roman Catholic Church as an institution. This is immensely sensitive territory. Voluntary departure from St Peter's is not without precedent, but most of those examples occurred in circumstances that were less than ideal and this has led to a sense within the Church that to leave would be abdication in the worst aspect of that term. A papal resignation should not, though, be deemed an eternally inappropriate option. There will be a moment when a Pope believes, after careful prayer and contemplation, that it would be best to spend the last period of his life in a retreat and not the Vatican.

Few conclude that this Pope, although he has produced many surprises before, will set that example. He considers it his obligation to see through his tenure to the end, even if done at huge mental and physical cost to himself. If that is his decision, then it should be respected. He has sacrificed so much for his faith and humanity at large that to preach to him on the wisest meaning of sacrifice would be a disrespectful imposition. If this is to be his last Easter Mass, and he has defied many similar predictions before, Roman Catholics and many others should remember and treasure the thought of what an astonishing and transformative Pontiff he has been.