A Million Hear Pope In Brazil Mass Focuses On Defending Families From Secular Threats

Some peered from high-rise balconies and others climbed trees to see Pope John Paul II Sunday, as more than a million people turned out for his final Mass in Brazil - one of his biggest crowds of the year.

Winding up a four-day visit, John Paul kept to his theme of defending the family, calling it “the fundamental community of love and life.”

Globo TV estimated the crowd at bayside Flamengo Park at more than 1 million, while police put it at 2 million.

It was at least as large as the turnout this year in Paris and Krakow, Poland. But this one had a Brazilian flair - men in shorts and women in bikini tops, all swaying to hymns under the tropical sun. The temperature hit 82 degrees on the first warm Brazilian spring day since the pope arrived Thursday.

The fierce sun took its toll. Firefighters sprayed the crowd with water and some 700 hundred people were treated for dehydration, according to press reports.

“The show of enthusiasm and the profound piety of this generous people will forever be engraved in my memory,” John Paul said in a farewell speech at Rio’s Galeao Air Base. At 7:00 p.m. local time, his Alitalia MD-11 jetliner took off for Rome.

The frail, 77-year-old pontiff showed remarkable vigor during his visit, often insisting on walking unaided and twirling his cane for the crowd. At a rally in Maracana stadium Saturday night, he walked up and down the 23 stairs to the stage.

The Vatican said he intends to keep traveling, with his next pilgrimage - to Cuba - scheduled for January.

“He looks a lot older now and a lot weaker, but his message is still the same,” said Jose Alberto Rabelo, a systems analyst who was 16 when John Paul last visited Rio in 1980. “He’s the greatest.”

The pope’s visit was mainly to pronounce the church’s message on the family and to set down strategy with bishops meeting here for defending the institution against what the church sees as secular threats.

John Paul condemned sex outside of marriage, gay marriage and pornography, and issued a major attack on abortion, calling it the “shame of humanity.”

“Don’t let a hedonistic mentality, ambition and selfishness enter your homes,” he said in his homily Sunday.

During the visit, he also assailed the wide gap between rich and poor in Brazil, and showed solidarity with the underclass by stopping to greet residents of a notorious shantytown and distributing communion at Sunday’s Mass to a small group of street children.

Josele Santos Diniz traveled 30 hours by bus from Barreiras in the underdeveloped northeast to attend the Mass.

“We hope Brazil improves with this visit and the leaders of our government become more sensitive to our needs,” she said.

The Rev. Jorge Tapia brought 200 seminarians from Curitiba, near Brazil’s southern coffee belt. “Whatever sacrifice they had to make in sleep and standing in the heat was worth it to share a moment with the pope,” he said.