This is a bizarre and non-Bibilical practice {actually it is against the Torah}.... Where did the xtians get this idea from?
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,584044,00.htmlPope John Paul II Whipped Himself as Act of Penance, Book ClaimsThe late Pope John Paul II, who has been put on the fast track to sainthood by the Vatican, regularly whipped himself as an act of penance to feel closer to G-d, and signed a secret document saying that he would step down as pontiff if he became incurably ill, according to a new book.
"Why a Saint?" by Monsignor Slawomir Oder, the Vatican "postulator" in charge of the canonization process, says the Polish-born Pope performed self flagellation as a bishop in Krakow and continued to do so in the Vatican after being elected Pope in 1978.
"In his wardrobe, among his vestments, there hung on a clothes hanger a special belt for trousers which he used as a whip," Monsignor Oder says. He said self flagellation was "an instrument of Christian perfection" emulating the sufferings of Jesus Christ.
...
PS: I really don't want to know why... It just seems like another thing that the Church copied from the Pagans which they attempted to get to convert to their religion. Maybe the Pope must punish himself for the great sins the Church is guilty of against the Jewish people.