Crowd gathers for Pope vigil in Portugal
LISBON — Tens of thousands of people gathered at riverside park near Lisbon on Saturday ahead of a vigil held by Pope Francis as part of a major Catholic youth festival.
Pilgrims protected themselves from the blazing sun with umbrellas or makeshift tents made from sheets at the Parque Tejo on the outskirts of the Portuguese capital.
Portugal's state weather office has put Lisbon on alert for scorching temperatures, with the mercury grazing 36oC on Saturday.
Worshippers sang, danced and played cards to pass the time until the start of the start of he vigil at 8:15pm (19:15 GMT).
Church organisers expect one million faithful will attend the event at the park, which was built for the occasion on a former landfill site, but which has little shade.
The vigil is part of World Youth Day festivities, which is actually a week of religious, cultural and festive events held every three years in a different city.
Earlier Saturday, the 86-year-old Pope visited the shrine of Fatima, a globally revered site north of Lisbon devoted to the Virgin Mary, where he was welcomed by some 200,000 people.
Worshippers waved and called out "Viva!" as the 86-year-old Pontiff, wearing a white cassock, slowly drove past on his Popemobile.
He paused several times to have babies brought to him and kissed them on the head.
'Everyone can enter'
The Pope then recited the rosary with sick youths, people with disabilities and prisoners at the chapel built on the spot where the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to three shepherd children in 1917.
In an address to the crowd estimated by local authorities at around 200,000 people, he reinforced calls made many times during his trip to Portugal for an inclusive church.
"This little chapel where we find ourselves, is like a beautiful image of the church, welcoming, without doors," he said in improvised remarks.
"The church does not have doors, so that everyone can enter," he added to applause from the crowd.
It is the second day running that the pope, has not followed his prepared remarks.
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni told reporters the Pope had improvised one of his speeches on Friday due to "discomfort of vision", but that in Fatima it had been "a choice".
The Pope solemnly prayed in silence for several minutes before a statue of the Virgin Mary in the chapel.
In a text published later on Twitter, which is being rebranded as “X”, the pontiff said he had prayed for the "church and the world, especially for countries at war".
Fatima draws millions of pilgrims from around the globe
Many pilgrims walk to the town and some complete the final stretch on their knees to demonstrate their devotion.
Susana Marino, a 48-year-old Portuguese psychologist, said she had come to Fatima because "it really will be the last chance we have to see the Pope".
The Pontiff is in increasingly fragile health and now uses a wheelchair or walking stick to get around.
He arrived in Portugal on Wednesday for World Youth Day, a six-day international Catholic jamboree.
The leader of the world's 1.3 billion Roman Catholics will deliver a final open-air mass on Sunday morning at the Parque Tejo before returning to Rome.
World Youth Day, created in 1986 by John Paul II, is the largest Catholic gathering in the world and features a wide range of events, including concerts and prayer sessions.
This edition, initially scheduled for August 2022 but postponed because of the pandemic, will be the fourth for Francis after Rio de Janeiro in 2013, Krakow in 2016 and Panama in 2019.