Pope Greets Romans For National Holiday

He walked slowly, didn’t kneel and his voice was weak, but Pope John Paul II kept his traditional pre-Christmas appointment with Romans on Monday.

More than 15,000 people crowded the Spanish Steps and the square below, joining John Paul in honoring the Virgin Mary on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

The feast day, a national holiday in Italy and several other European countries, marks the Catholic teaching that Mary was free from original sin from the moment of her own conception. The holiday also ushers in Rome’s Christmas season.