So near, yet so far: Devotees on Kalaw watch Pope’s Mass on big screens
January 18, 2015 6:09pm
People on Kalaw Ave. watch the Mass on large screens. Amita Legaspi
The millions who came to Manila to hear the Pope's Mass on Sunday packed Quirino Grandstand and spilled out into the streets surrounding Rizal Park.

Devotees in areas such as T. M. Kalaw Avenue were able to follow the Mass on widescreen televisions, and after the ceremony many of them decided to hang around to see if they could catch a glimpse of the Pope as he left.

They watched the Pope's motorcade go around the grandstand as he blessed and greeted devotees.

Out on Kalaw, some of the audience hoped against hope that he would pass their way.

"Iikot pa yan dito," one woman told her companion as they watched the motorcade wend its way through the grandstand, despite knowing that the motorcade was not going to pass through Kalaw on its way to the nunciature.

They cheered every time the Pope stopped to kiss children. And when the emcee began egging the grandstand crowd to greet the Pope by waving their handkerchiefs at him, the Kalaw crowd did the same.

"Hi, Pope Francis," quipped an old lady.

The crowd also got excited every time a white vehicle passed on Kalaw or Taft Avenues, and even ran to Taft Avenue upon seeing the Taft Avenue marker on the widescreen. Unfortunately, the Pope's motorcade at the time was on the corner of Taft and Quirino Avenues, where the nunciature is located. — BM, GMA News

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