Enthusiastic Crowd Greets Pope At World Youth Day 750,000 Pack French Racetrack To Hear Pontiff Preach Tolerance
Joking with them, listening to their music and even staying up late, Pope John Paul II tried Saturday to inspire the world’s young people to build a more caring society and to energize his church.
After chastising the West for cracking down on immigrants and visiting the tomb of a staunch opponent of abortion the day before, the pope returned his attention to the reason he came to Paris for four days: hundreds of thousands of young Catholics gathered here from around the world.
To rest up for a late vigil of prayer and song at the Longchamp racetrack with participants in the church’s World Youth Day, John Paul spent much of his day inside the Vatican ambassador’s residence as temperatures reached 90 degrees.
The young faithful at Longchamp could hardly wait for the pope to arrive and began flooding the racetrack in the afternoon.
An estimated 750,000 people waving national flags, wearing national costumes and weighed down by backpacks, sleeping bags and bottled water poured into Longchamp.
Among those attending the vigil were 10 young people, two each from five continents, who were to be baptized by the pope during the vigil.
A young French sailor who was baptized wept at one point during the ceremony, while 15-year-old Megan Costello of Odgen, Utah, who represented the United States, appeared deep in thought throughout the vigil.
Addressing the themes of injustice and intolerance, the pope looked ahead to today’s farewell Mass, which falls on the anniversary of the 1572 massacre of Protestants by Catholics in France.
“On the eve of August 24, we cannot forget the sad Massacre of St. Bartholomew’s Day … Christians did things which the Gospel condemns,” the pope said.
He urged tolerance, saying that “belonging to different religious traditions must not constitute today a source of opposition and tension.”
The 77-year-old pontiff’s one public event Saturday morning gave him a taste of the exuberance the youths feel for their spiritual leader.
Twisting and swaying up the center aisle, and thumping tambourines and drums, young Catholics helped the pope celebrate a Mass of solidarity Saturday morning in the Left Bank church of St. Etienne-du-Mont.
Invited to the Mass were some 300 youths from 135 countries whom the pope wanted to thank for working to organize World Youth Day, a Catholic event held every other year in a different country.