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The modern world suffers from a great lack of the capacity to cry, Pope Francis told a crowd of thousands at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila on Sunday. (Jan. 18) AP
Pope Francis aboard his popemobile greets Filipinos and devotees before his Mass in Quirino grandstand, Manila, on Jan. 18.(Photo: Zalrian Z. Sayat, European Pressphoto Agency)
MANILA— A record 6 million people braved steady rain here Sunday to see Pope Francis on the final day of his nearly weeklong tour of Asia, a trip marked by his message of hope and warnings over poverty and corruption.
Huge crowds poured into the streets of Manila, the capital of the Philippines, and thronged Rizal Park for the pope's final Mass. Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi, said the Vatican received the crowd estimate — which surpassed the 5 million who turned out for St. John Paul II's final Mass in the same park in 1995 — from local authorities.
Francis dedicated the final homily of his tour to the young and urged protection for children so they aren't tempted by sin or the devil or distracted by "promises of ephemeral pleasures, superficial pastimes."
"We need to care for our young people, not allowing them to be robbed of hope and condemned to a life on the streets," he said.
The Mass took place on the third and final day of the pope's visit to the Philippines, whose roughly 80 million Catholics comprise about 7% of the world's total. He started his Asian pilgrimage when he arrived in Sri Lanka on Tuesday. The pope is scheduled to return to the Vatican on Monday.
"I'm elated to have seen Pope Francis," said Rhaffy Vinoya, a hotel clerk. "It felt as if an electric current were passing through my body."
The pontiff arrived Sunday on a popemobile based on the design of a jeepney, the modified U.S. Army World War II jeep that is a common means of public transport in the Philippines, wearing the same plastic yellow rain poncho handed out to the masses during his visit to the central Philippine city of Tacloban a day earlier.
"I feel blessed, like my sins are being washed away," said Jubilee Cabildo,14, clutching a statue of the Santo Niño (Holy Child) as she queued to pass through a security checkpoint to enter the 143-acre Rizal Park. The Santo Niño is a revered icon of the infant Jesus, and the church had encouraged Filipinos to bring them to be blessed by the pope.
Clarence Baib typified the lengths to which worshipers went to attend the Mass, the only papal event in Manila that was open to the public.
The 23-year-old pharmacist rose at 3 a.m. in Binan, more than 20 miles outside the capital, left the house at 5 a.m., drove an hour and walked another before finally getting in line to enter the park, with more than eight hours to go before the service started.
"My companions and I feel blessed to have the opportunity to attend the Mass and to see the pope," she said.
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Officials in Manila had suggested Massgoers consider using adult diapers because access to public toilets would be limited. Traffic cops were given diapers because they couldn't leave their posts, though authorities backed off an initial order to use them.
Earlier Sunday, Pope Francis drew a crowd of 200,000 people when he addressed young people at Manila's Catholic university, coming close to tears when he heard two rescued street children speak of their lives growing up poor and abandoned.
He ditched his prepared remarks to respond to four young people who spoke. The most poignant testimony came from Glyzelle Palomar, 12, who wept as she asked Francis why children suffer so much. She spoke of children who are abandoned by their parents and end up using drugs or in prostitution.
"Why is God allowing something like this to happen, even to innocent children? And why are there so few who are helping us?" she said, breaking down in tears, unable to finish reading what she had prepared to say to the pope.
A visibly moved Francis said he had no answer. "Only when we are able to cry are we able to come close to responding to your question," Francis said.
"Those on the margins cry. Those who have fallen by the wayside cry. Those who are discarded cry," he said. "But those who are living a life that is more or less without need, we don't know how to cry."
The pope also met with the father of Kristel Padasas, a 27-year-old volunteer with Catholic Relief Services who died after she was hit by scaffolding after the Mass in Tacloban on Saturday. Her father was overwhelmed by the loss but was "consoled thinking that she had helped prepare the meeting of the people with the pope," Lombardi said.
USATODAY
Soaked pope comforts typhoon survivors, shortens trip
The pontiff was forced to cut his trip short to Tacloban — hard-hit by Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 — ahead of the approaching Tropical Storm Mekkhala. About 150,000 people, including survivors of the typhoon and of the earthquake on the island of Bohol that killed more than 200 people in October 2013, braved the approaching storm to attend Mass with the pope.
"I'll never forget the face of the Holy Father, listening to each (survivor)," said a weeping and choked up Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, archbishop of Manila. "(The pope) was suffering — suffering," he added. "(He responded with) the communion and solidarity that exist in silence."
"The symbolic value of that (visit) will last for a long, long time," said Michael Martin, a priest from Ireland who has lived and worked in the Philippines for 48 years, nearly half of his time spent in the region that bore the brunt of the typhoon's destructive fury.
Contributing: Jane Onyanga-Omara in London; Associated Press
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