Pope Francis draws record crowd of 6 million in Manila

Pope Francis wrapped up a five-day visit to Asia's most Catholic nation on Sunday, drawing 6 million devotees to a Manila waterfront park, the largest ever crowd for a papal event.

The Argentine-born Pope was stunned by the enormity of the crowd and Pope-mania frenzy, telling the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, "I cannot fathom the faith of the simple people."

Using his visit to the Philippines to highlight themes that are a major focus of the Catholic church, 78 year-old Pope Francis addressed climate change and population control and spoke out against "poverty, ignorance and corruption" in the country where 25 million people live on 60 cents a day or less, according to government data.

The Pope visited with street children and travelled to typhoon-hit Tacloban city on Leyte island to celebrate a mass in wild weather and meet with survivors of Typhoon Haiyan, the strongest storm on record that devastated the central Philippine islands in 2013.

Manila city officials said the 6 million turnout surpassed the previous world record for a papal event of 5 million during a mass by Pope John Paul II at the same venue in 1995.

The country's largest ever security operation protected the Pope who triumphantly rode to Sunday's mass in a specially-made open-air jeepney, the most common form of transport in the Philippines.

Reporters close to Francis said he came close to tears on Sunday when he heard two rescued street children speak of their lives growing up poor and abandoned.

Glyzelle Palamar, 12, who had been rescued from the streets by a church-foundation, told Francis of children who are abandoned or neglected by their parents and using drugs or in prostitution.

"Why is God allowing something like this to happen, even to innocent children?," Glyzelle said through tears.

"And why are there so few helping us?"

Pope Francis said he had no answer.

"Only when we are able to cry are we able to come close to responding to your question," he said.

"Those on the margins cry. Those who have fallen by the wayside cry. Those who are discarded cry ... but those who are more or less living a life without need, we don't know how to cry."

He added: "There are some realities that you can only see through eyes that have been cleansed by tears."

The Pope said children need to be seen as a gift to be welcomed, cherished and protected.

"We need to care for our young, not allowing them to be robbed of hope and condemned to life on the streets," he said.

The United Nations says 1.2 million children live on the streets in the Philippines.

In his homily on Sunday, 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 on Friday.

The Pope also took a swipe at the government's population control efforts, saying the family was under threat from "insidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred."

Pope Francis received a rapturous reception wherever he went, cementing the Philippines as the church's bastion in Asia.

Worshiper Rommel Monton, 28, said Francis doesn't want to be treated as someone special.

"Look at his vehicles, they are not bullet-proof, he wanted them to be open so he can feel he is close to the people," he said.

"How will you be able to protect your followers if you are not with them, if you are afraid to show yourself, to stand behind them or stand before them?"

Eighty per cent of the former Spanish colony's 100 million people are Catholics.

Source : http://www.smh.com.au/world/pope-francis-draws-record-crowd-of-6-million-in-manila-20150118-12sxz9.html