Pope Francis Addresses Record-Breaking Crowd Of Up To Six Million In Manila

Pope Francis made his way into the Guinness Book of Records this weekend, as he addressed a record-breaking crowd of up to six million people in the Philippine capital Manila this weekend.

The millions of faithful devotees of Pope Francis stood for hours in the torrential rain in order to hear the him say Mass, and he appealed to the world to “learn how to cry” over the plight of poor, hungry, homeless, and abused children.

Pope Francis was driven in a modified “Popemobile” through the streets of Manila, wearing a transparent yellow poncho over his white cassock.

His Excellence, according to the BBC, stopped a number of times en-route to kiss children and bless religious statues on the very day that the Philippines celebrated the feast of the infant Jesus.

Being that the Pope is a highly revered figure in the Philippines, people waited all night to get the best view of him, like 53-year-old Bernie Nacario, who told AFP reporters, “We are devotees of the pope. The pope is an instrument of the Lord and if you are able to communicate with him, it is just like talking to God himself.”

The Pontiff’s five-day visit to the Philippines, which began on Thursday, followed two days in Sri Lanka and is his second trip to Asia in five months.

Another faithful follower of the Pope, 41-year-old May Dupaya, also spoke to reporters about the Papal visit, saying, “I am prepared to get wet for Pope Francis. I’m prepared to get sick for Francis.”

On Pope Francis’ last day in the Philippines, he attended a youth gathering at a Catholic university in Manila, where attendees were moved by a question posed by a 12-year-old orphan girl called Glyzelle Iris Palomar.

She asked his Holiness, “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?”

By way of a response to that difficult and time-honored question, the Pope replied, “Why do children suffer?’ I invite each one of you to ask yourselves, ‘Have I learned how to weep, how to cry 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?”‘