7 million Attend Pope Francis Philippines Mass

Marking Largest Ever in Papal Historypope philippines

BY ANUGRAH KUMAR,  CHRISTIAN POST CONTRIBUTOR
January 18, 2015|About 7 million people, most of them drenched in rain and wearing their ponchos, gathered for an open-air Mass with Pope Francis in the Philippines on Sunday, the final full day of his weeklong trip. It was the largest-ever crowd for a papal event.
"We are not able to count all these people, obviously, or to verify this, but in any case, we have seen so many people that we believe that it is possible," Reuters quoted Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi as saying.
"If this is true, and we think it is, this is the largest event in the history of the popes," he added.
Pope John Paul drew some five million to the same area 25 years ago.
In his homily, Pope Francis urged Filipinos to shun "social structures which perpetuate poverty, ignorance and corruption."

President Benigno Aquino also attended the Mass.The pope also criticized the government's population control efforts, saying the family was under threat from "insidious attacks and programs contrary to all that we hold true and sacred."
The pope said the Santo Nino's message is "We are all God's children, members of God's family."