Pope John Paul II self-flagellated to get closer to Jesus

In this article, it mainly discusses the deceased Pope John Paul's views and actions. It is claimed in a newly released book that the ex-Pope was almost conciered an Opus Dei from of the catholic religion. He was part of an old Polish religion community but these sort of actions do not reflect on the main catholic church. People at the Vatacin state that he had a special belt in his closed that he would whip himself and sleep on the floor to become closer to Jesus Christ. Vacatin staff and Cardinals say they could hear him with their own ears.
I strongly disagree with the actions that were performed by Pope John Paul the second. It even states in the holy bible: "any man were to come after me...let him take up his cross daily." This is a very powerful statement. It is hard to see why people would perform such actions when Jesus's life was taken so such things wouldn't have to happen. It is hard to argue with peoples beliefs because all he was trying to do was become closer to Christ, even if i don't believe that these actions were necessary.