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Pope leaves millions blessed, awed in Luneta mass

Published January 18, 2015 5:18pm

Pope Francis kisses a child as he arrives to lead an open-air Mass at Rizal Park in Manila January 18, 2015. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

Pope Francis on Sunday afternoon left Filipinos blessed and awed, commending them to "a world of justice, integrity and peace" in a Holy Mass that could be the largest in decades, attended by millions at the Quirino Grandstand, on nearby roads and even blocks away.

As of 5:30 p.m., the Metro Manila Development Authority estimated the crowd at six million people for Luneta and the papal route.

"The official number that has been given to us is between six and seven million,” Father Federico Lombardi, director of the Vatican Press Office, told journalists at a press conference in Manila on Sunday night.

That number surpasses the previous record for a papal gathering of five million during a mass by John Paul II at the same venue in 1995.

Addressing the huge throng that gathered even with rainshowers brought by Tropical Storm Amang, Pope Francis prayed that Filipinos be blessed by the Holy Child, the Sto. Niño, whose feast the Philippines celebrated every third Sunday of January.

“At the end of my visit to the Philippines, I commend you to Him, to Jesus who came among us as a child. May he enable all the beloved people of this country to work together, protecting one another, beginning with your families and communities, in building a world of justice, integrity and peace,” Pope Francis said.

“May the Santo Niño continue to bless the Philippines and to sustain the Christians of this great nation in their vocation to be witnesses and missionaries of the joy of the Gospel, in Asia and in the whole world,” he added.

Strong messages

In his homily, the Pope urged Filipinos to shun "social structures which perpetuate poverty, ignorance and corruption", a theme he stressed when he held talks with President Benigno Aquino III on Friday. Aquino attended the Mass.

Continuing his strong message to the Filipino family and the youth, Pope Francis asked Filipino families and communities to work together to build a "world of justice, integrity and peace."

The Pope again asked Filipinos to protect the family against "certain attacks," in a message that could be construed as criticism of the country's Reproductive Health Law, which had met stiff opposition from the local Catholic hierarchy before being passed in 2012.

"The Sto. Niño reminds us of the importance of protecting our families, and those larger families which are the Church, God’s family, and the world, our human family. Sadly, in our day, the family all too often needs to be protected against insidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred, all that is most beautiful and noble in our culture," Pope Francis said.

It was similar to his address to families last Friday, when Pope Francis referenced Blessed Paul VI, who as Pope wrote the encyclical Humanae Vitae that defined the Catholic Church's continued rejection of most forms of artificial birth control.

Despite strong opposition from bishops, Aquino signed the reproductive health bill in December 2012. The law aims to provide improved public access to natural and artificial family planning options, better maternal care, and sex education to the youth.

Millions of Catholic faithful fill the Luneta grounds in front of Quirino Grandstand on Sunday afternoon, January 18, as Pope Francis celebrates Mass for the Catholic faithful. Edison Cayco via YouScoop

Typhoon-proof

The Holy Father's concluding mass lasted for almost two hours. He concelebrated the Eucharistic celebration with more than 2,000 local and foreign priests and bishops.

"Your love is typhoon-proof," said Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines president Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Socrates Villegas, as he expressed the gratitude of Asia's only predominantly Catholic country.

"You are our raincoat in the rain.... You are our sunshine. Pope Francis, we love you!" Villegas added.

Manila Archbishop Luis Antonio Tagle thanked Pope Francis for his apostolic visit, saying the entire Filipino people will pray for him.

"All of us want to say again and again, all of us want to say, maraming salamat, Santo Padre," Tagle said.

Tagle referenced Pope Francis’ practice of asking for prayers, and said that more than the entire Filipino people, Jesus, too, prays for the pontiff.

"You often end your meetings and encounters, by saying, ‘I ask you to pray for me.’ We, Filipinos, will pray for you. But we also want to assure you, to remind you, that Jesus, Jesus prays for you. Jesus himself said to Peter, ‘I have prayed for you, Peter, that your own faith will not fail.’ Your Holiness, you are blessed, Jesus prays for you," Tagle said.

"How blessed you are, Jesus prays for you, and we, your beloved Filipinos, unite ourselves with Jesus in praying for you, to the Father," Tagle added.

Pope Francis blesses the crowd at the Quirino Grandstand grounds. Kara David

'Papa Francisco!'

Egged on by Catholic leaders, Filipinos chanted "Papa Francisco, mahal ng Pilipino!" after the Pope ended the eucharistic celebration.

Millions also waved white handkerchiefs as the Holy Father went around the venue to bless the crowd before leaving for the Apostolic Nunciature, his official residence during his stay in the Philippines.

As when he arrived before 3 p.m., Pope Francis rode the white jeep, so designed to be his popemobile in the country.

The Quirino Grandstand crowd was divided into quadrants and the pontiff's ride went around through the spaces in between.

Singer Jamie Rivera sang the official hymn, "We Are All God's Children," as the Pope, protected from the rain in a yellow raincoat, blessed and waved to the people.

Santo Niño images

Devotees, many of whom had camped out at the area since Saturday, cheered the Pope, bringing up images of the Santo Niño for him to bless. The mass coincided with the Feast Day of the Santo Niño.

The Catholic Church has earlier asked the devotees of the Santo Niño to bring their images of the Baby Jesus to the event so that it will be blessed by the Holy Father.

Before making his way to the Popemobile to make his rounds, Pope Francis was greeted by the highest officials in the land — Aquino and Vice President Jejomar Binay.

Pope Francis in his homily highlighted the Filipinos' special relationship with Santo Niño, the Child Jesus, asking the faithful to embrace the identity of being “God’s children.”

“Throughout my visit, I have listened to you sing the song: 'We are all God’s children.' That is what the Santo Niño tells us. He reminds us of our deepest identity. All of us are God’s children, members of God’s family,” said Pope Francis.

Pope Francis, in the country for a five-day visit, added that Catholics are God’s adopted children, and in turn Jesus’ own siblings.

“Today Saint Paul has told us that in Christ we have become God’s adopted children, brothers and sisters in Christ. This is who we are. This is our identity. We saw a beautiful expression of this when Filipinos rallied around our brothers and sisters affected by the typhoon,” he said, referring to super typhoon Yolanda, which leveled Central Visayas and killed thousands in November 2013.

Pope Francis embraces Glyzel Palomar and Jun Chura after the two former street children read their personal letters to the Pope during the 'Encounter with the Youth' at University of Santo Tomas. AFP/Giuseppe Cacace

'Why do children suffer?'

The Pope's last full day in the Philippines began with an emotional youth gathering at University of Santo Tomas in Manila, where he was moved by a question posed by a 12-year-old girl who had been abandoned.

"Many children are abandoned by their parents. Many of them became victims and bad things have happened to them, like drug addiction and prostitution. Why does God allow this to happen, even if the children are not at fault? Why is it that only a few people help us?" the girl, Glyzelle Iris Palomar, asked him.

The girl, who was rescued and found shelter in a Church-run community, broke down in tears and could not finish her prepared welcome. The Pope hugged her and later put aside most of his own prepared speech to respond.

"She is the only one who has put forward a question for which there is no answer and she was not even able to express it in words but rather in tears," he said, visibly moved.

"Why do children suffer?" the Argentine Pope said, speaking in his native Spanish. An aide translated his words into English for the crowd of about 30,000 young people on the grounds of the Church-run university.

"I invite each one of you to ask yourselves, 'Have I learned how to weep ... when I see a hungry child, a child on the street who uses drugs, a homeless child, an abandoned child, an abused child, a child that society uses as a slave'?" he said.

Children can be seen living on the streets of the Philippine capital, as they often do in many poor Asian countries, surviving by begging and picking through garbage in vast dumps.

The United Nations says 1.2 million children live on the streets in the Philippines. According to the Child Protection Network Foundation, 35.1 percent of children were living in poverty in 2009, the last year such data was available. Nearly 33 percent of Filipinos live in slums.

In his homily later at the Mass, the Pope again spoke of the need to defend children, saying: "We need to see each child as a gift to be welcomed, cherished and protected. And we need to care for our young people, not allowing them to be robbed of hope and condemned to life on the streets."

Asia's role model

The Pope's five-day visit to the Philippines, which began on Thursday, followed two days in Sri Lanka.

It is his second trip to Asia in five months, in a nod to the growing importance of the region to the Catholic Church as it faces declining support in Europe and the United States.

It is also the fourth papal visit to the Philippines.

The Philippines is the Catholic Church's benchmark in Asia, with 80 percent of the former Spanish colony followers of the faith.

Rapturous receptions for the pope throughout his Philippine journey, including millions crowding his motorcade routes in Manila, have cemented the nation's status as the Church's Asian role model. —reports from Patricia Denise Chiu, Rouchelle Dinglasan, Reuters, and Agence France Presse/NB/JST, GMA News

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