Pope Francis yesterday enjoyed a rapturous welcome in the Philippines as he began a five-day trip in the Catholic Church’s Asian heartland that is tipped to attract a world-record papal crowd.
Church bells tolled across the former Spanish colony as the charismatic pontiff flew into the capital of Manila after a successful visit to Sri Lanka.
Francis smiled as he looked out the window of his plane upon touchdown, greeted by the sight of hundreds of children on the tarmac chanting: “Welcome Pope Francis.”
Photo: AFP
The pope has said his two-
nation tour is aimed at adding momentum to the church’s already impressive growth in Asia, with its support in the Philippines the benchmark for the rest of the region.
Eighty percent of the nation of 100 million people practice a famously fervent brand of Catholicism, and the pope is set to enjoy thunderously enthusiastic crowds throughout his stay.
“Every step he makes, every car ride he takes, every moment he stays with us is precious for us,” Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said as he called on all Filipinos to make an effort to see him.
Hundreds of thousands of people crowded the route the pope passed as he made a 35-minute trip in a “popemobile” from the airport to the Vatican’s embassy to rest overnight.
The pope stood on the back of the vehicle, which had no walls, waving and smiling constantly to the crowd.
The high-point of his trip is expected to be an open-air mass on Sunday at a park in Manila, with organizers preparing for up to 6 million people despite a forecast of rain and security concerns.
Organizers have said that, if the crowd is as big as expected, it will surpass the previous record for a papal gathering of 5 million during a mass by John Paul II at the same venue in 1995.
Francis, who is the fourth pope to visit the Philippines, is also due to visit communities devastated by Typhoon Haiyan, which left 7,350 people dead or missing in 2013.
Church officials have said one of the main reasons for Francis wanting to visit the Philippines was to make a “mercy and compassion” trip to meet survivors of the typhoon tomorrow.
He is scheduled to deliver a mass to tens of thousands of people in Tacloban, one of the worst-hit cities in the central Philippines, and have an intimate lunch with 30 typhoon survivors.
The main events scheduled for today include a state welcome at the presidential palace, a mass at Manila Cathedral and a meeting at a shopping mall with thousands of families.
Authorities have expressed major concerns over the pope’s security in the Philippines, where attempts have been made to kill visiting pontiffs twice before.
Nearly 40,000 soldiers and police are being deployed to protect Francis.
Potential stampedes from the giant crowds and the threat of Islamic militants or lone-wolf assailants are among the concerns.
On the first papal visit to the Philippines in 1970, Bolivian painter Benjamin Mendoza donned a fake priest’s cassock and swung a knife at Pope Paul VI as he arrived at Manila airport.
One week before John Paul II’s 1995 visit, police uncovered a plot by foreign Muslim extremists to kill him by bombing his Manila motorcade route.
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