Pope struggles over Lourdes Mass
LOURDES, France -- An ailing Pope John Paul II has celebrated an open-air Mass for several hundred thousand pilgrims, many in wheelchairs, near a French shrine to the Virgin Mary associated with miraculous cures.
Sunday's Mass was the highlight of the pontiff's two-day visit to the southwestern French town of Lourdes, where the Madonna is said to have appeared to St. Bernadette in 1858.
At one point the pontiff said "help me" in Polish while reciting his homily in French. Aides gave him water to drink and later said "I have to finish."
The pope did manage to complete his sermon but skipped several sections. He raised his voice to express "special affection" for the sick.
The crowd of about 200,000 applauded at times to encourage the 84-year-old pope, who has Parkinson's disease and arthritis.
He also drew cheers for his message condemning materialism and secularism, The Associated Press reported. He also urged women to reject abortion, saying life must "be respected from conception to its natural end."
The pontiff spent the first day of his visit among pilgrims at the city's popular shrine, where he called himself a sick man among the suffering.
His frailty was evident in his hesitant airport arrival address to President Jacques Chirac on Saturday and later at the grotto where the vision is said to have occurred.
The pontiff lost his balance while kneeling to pray and aides rushed to prevent him from falling before seating him back on his wheeled throne.
After several minutes of prayer, he designated a cardinal to read his address for him.
"With you I share a time of life marked by physical suffering, yet not for that reason any less fruitful in God's wondrous plan," he said.
"Dear brothers and sisters who are sick, how I would like to embrace each and every one of you with affection, to tell you how close I am to you and how much I support you."
"With great emotion I wish to join the millions of pilgrims who come to Lourdes each year from every part of the world, in order to entrust to the Mother of the Lord the intentions which they bear in their hearts and to ask for her help and intercession," he said.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
