Visit Appears To Tire Pope
A visibly tired Pope John Paul II left a wet and windy Sydney on Friday, after a two-day visit in which he placed an Australian nun on the road to sainthood.
About 300 people braved an early morning downpour and strong gusts to catch a last glimpse of the pontiff before he took off on a 10-hour flight to Sri Lanka.
On Thursday, the pope beatified Mary MacKillop, a Catholic pioneer who regularly clashed with the church’s male hierarchy when they tried to wrest control of the order of sisters she founded last century.
At an outdoor mass attended by tens of thousands people at Sydney’s Randwick racetrack, John Paul, 74, showed signs of weariness.