Neither Bullets Nor Age Has Slowed John Paul : Religion: Nine years after the attempt on his life, and approaching 70, the pontiff finishes his exhausting visit to Mexico.

Another Sunday, in the Caribbean this time, a breeze-tossed sea replacing baked Mexican hills. But the same slender and earnest figure preaching to another reverent crowd, the living symbol, he believes, of a special nine-year-old gift from providence.

Pope John Paul II, nearing 70, does not rest on the seventh day.

Not even on a Sunday so fraught with painful memory.

The pontiff ended his triumphant visit to Mexico on Sunday on the ninth anniversary of the assassination attempt that nearly killed him.

Turkish assailant Mehmet Ali Agca, who shot John Paul, is still in jail in Italy. The Pope, who lay near death for agonizing hours after emergency surgery, is still traveling.

On Sunday, he seemed improbably full of energy at the conclusion of another of the foreign pilgrimages that have become the arduous trademark of a papal travel yen: Before the shooting, John Paul had made nine trips. He’s made 37 since.

Homeward bound, the Pope’s jet took off from Mexico City nine years to the minute of the attack in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday, May 13, 1981, at 5:17 p.m. Rome time.

No coincidence, for Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Agostino Casaroli was on the intercom before the wheels were up.

“Nine years ago at this precise moment there occurred an incredible manifestation of hate against he who only preached love. But at the same time there occurred a manifestation of divine intervention . . . the intercession of Our Lady of Fatima, toward whom the victim of the attack nurtures so much devotion,” Casaroli said.

John Paul has special devotion for the virgin whom Catholics believe appeared to three shepherd children near Fatima, Portugal, on May 13, 1917.

“There still remains the echo of the incredible horror of that moment,” Casaroli said, expressing joy at John Paul’s survival and his recovery. “Providence not only saved the life of the Pope but in a certain sense reinvigorated his strengths.”

The Pope himself made passing reference to the anniversary in a departure statement in Mexico City before a five-hour stop here in the Netherlands Antilles en route to Rome.

“It is a very significant date for me because, on a day like today nine years ago, I felt in a particular way the maternal protection of Mary,” John Paul said.

The Pope’s terrestrial protection has improved dramatically since that day in 1981 when he was shot as he rode among pilgrims in the back of an open jeep.

Here on an island of 147,000, the Pope waved to crowds from the sunroof of a white station wagon, but in Mexico his parade vans were shielded by bulletproof glass. There was a price: They sometimes had a fan but never air conditioning. On hot afternoons, the so-called Popemobiles became mobile one-man saunas.

Still, by the standards of a modern presidency, the Pope’s security is rudimentary, particularly for a man who goes out of his way to physically reach as many people as he can.

One heavy afternoon in Durango last week, John Paul ordained 100 priests--and embraced them all, one by one. On any given day on the road, literally hundreds of faithful touched the Pope’s hands and kissed his ring.

As the security system has developed since his chaotic first visit to Mexico in 1979, an ad hoc security screen made up of Vatican personnel and local agents now hovers around the Pope as he travels. It is sometimes breached.

At Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari’s Los Pinos residence last Monday, a zealous woman ran unmolested for more than 20 yards to kneel before the Pope. Agents were quicker to tackle a young man who tried to reach John Paul in Monterrey on Thursday. He turned out to be a seminarian who wanted to give a letter to his Pope.

John Paul’s Mexican odyssey once again offered sweaty testimony of papal stamina and intellect that delight, amaze and exhaust his aides.

The pontiff visited 10 Mexican cities on 12-hour workdays, marked by great heat and popular passion, that brought literally millions of Mexicans into streets, stadiums and, once, a dry river bed, to applaud him. In all, he logged 15 flights by plane and eight by helicopter. He rode uncounted miles in regional incarnations of Popemobiles to ceremonies where he delivered 26 addresses.

On most days, the schedule slackened only for a light lunch-and-siesta break of about two hours.

Except for greetings here in English, John Paul spoke Spanish in Mexico. Talking with reporters on the flight from Rome, the Pope assayed some Spanish, but it came out mostly Italian.

John Paul writes most easily in his native Polish, but he can also converse in Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Dutch, Slovak and Czech. In Mexico, with the catchy strains of “Cielito Lindo” greeting him at every turn, it didn’t take the Pope long to catch the Spanish rhythm.

“Mexico knows how to dance. Mexico knows how to pray. Mexico knows how to sing. But above all, Mexico knows how to shout,” John Paul bantered in Spanish with a Mexico City crowd.

“Now it’s the Pope’s turn to talk,” he teased an interrupting crowd in Monterrey.

When John Paul talked, it was to deliver a familiar message of faith, brotherhood, morality and obedience to church teachings, however testing or controversial.

Along the way, a reporter asked what substantial changes there had been since the first trip in 1979.

“The essential change is that the Pope is 11 years older,” he replied.

John Paul turns 70 next Friday. A week later, he begins a three-day visit to the Mediterranean island of Malta.