That is no longer limited to America. You do have zealots who go to the opposite extreme like having themselves nailed to crosses on Good Friday. Perhaps we need to simply accept how JPII chose to express his devotion to our Lord without criticism or critique.
Ah, come to the Philippines, where people know about suffering...this year, the Black Nazarene (the devotion to the suffering Christ) procession had hundreds of thousands attending (one estimate was 2 million, but who knows, since folks come and go).
The increase in numbers was by folks who suffered in the typhoons and floods.