Six million devoted Filipinos filled the streets of Manila to get a glimpse of Pope Francis on the last stop of the pontiff’s Asia tour. Francis Tolentino, the chairman of the the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, said the figure of 6 million included not just those who attended the Pope’s Mass in Rizal Park, but all those in the streets nearby and people crowding around his motorcade.
Philippines has an enormous Catholic population. The 6 million shattered a record of 5 million people attending a Pope’s Mass. The 5 million attendees was also recorded in Manila, when Pope John Paul II–now Saint John Paul II–said Mass there in 1995.
