MANILA (Reuters) – Pope Francis wraps up his Asian trip today with an outdoor Mass expected to draw one of the largest crowds in Philippine history.
Organisers say as many as six million people may attend the afternoon service at Manila’s Rizal Park, more than the some five million who flocked to a Mass by Pope John Paul 20 years ago in Asia’s largest Catholic country.
The faithful began arriving at the sprawling park last night to get good places and police expect the crowd to flow over into surrounding areas.
The pope will hold morning meetings with religious leaders and young people at a Manila university before the Mass, the last event of a trip that began last Tuesday in Sri Lanka.
The Philippines has laid on the largest security operation in its history, with about 50,000 police and soldiers on hand.
The Vatican said Francis will dedicate the Mass in part to the victims of Typhoon Haiyan, which killed at least 6,300 people, left a million others homeless and displaced four million when it ravaged parts of the country in 2013.