Pope John Paul II, eighty-four, was nearing the twilight of his historic papacy, one that hastened the end of the Cold War and left him a reputation as one of the most influential figures of the twentieth century. He had survived two assassination attempts, battles with cancer, and other illnesses, and time was finally taking its toll. He had slowly been dying for years.
It was early 2005, and Jim Nicholson, a trim, mustachioed Coloradan, was ending his stint as the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, a position to which he had been appointed by George W. Bush in 2001. The low-key ambassador, a West Point graduate and highly decorated Vietnam veteran, had been recalled to Washington to serve as Bush’s secretary of Veterans Affairs.
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