According to several reputable international news sources, including Yahoo News, the BBC, CNN, the Daily Mail the Guardian UK and News.com.au, a mass celebrated by His Holiness Pope Francis this Sunday in the Filipino capital city of Manila was attended by a world record 6 million people. It was the last full day of his 6-day visit to Asia which began in Sri Lanka.

According to a report by Yahoo News, “Pope Francis drew a record six million people as he celebrated mass in the rain-swept Philippine capital Sunday, a triumphant finale to an Asian tour in which he championed the plight of the poor.
Filipinos are famous for practising a passionate brand of Catholicism and they turned out in a celebratory mood that defied the gloomy skies, determined to see the charismatic 78-year-old pontiff.

Francis made an exhilarating entrance to a Manila bayside park for the mass aboard a “popemobile” that was styled after the nation’s iconic, flamboyant and much-loved “jeepney” minibus.

Dressed in a plastic yellow poncho, he waved and smiled to wildly cheering crowds, stopping repeatedly so he could lean over barriers and kiss babies, before reaching the sea of believers at Rizal Park.

The Philippines is famed as the Catholic Church’s bastion in Asia, with 80 percent of the former Spanish colony following the faith.

But even the pope was stunned at the size of the crowd which he looked out on from the stage.

“I cannot fathom the faith of the simple people,” Francis said, according to the Archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who acted as the pontiff’s chaperone.

Six million turned out to see the pope at the park and along motorcade routes, the head of Manila’s planning agency, Francis Tolentino, told AFP, adding this was based on calculations done with the police. This surpassed the previous world record for a papal gathering of five million during a mass by John Paul II at the same venue in 1995. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi said Sunday’s crowd could even reach seven million. However he did not have any firm assessments to base this on.”
The Guardian added, “Though it rained all day on Sunday, the weather did not dampen the spirits of the faithful who had come from all over the country, motivated by the chance to see a man whom they believe is an answer to their prayers.

Crowds lined the streets patiently and calmly, standing on the closed-off pavements near the venue or behind policed barricades waiting for a sight of their hero. To ¬protect themselves from the rain they wore everything from rubbish bags turned into raincoats to shawls made of bubble wrap.

One observer, Joey Stefona, was so excited about the prospect of seeing Pope Francis in person he said: ‘If he passed by I would be so elated, no words can explain. I really love the pope. I can see all the people smiling – all smiling despite the rain because they are all hoping to see the pope and pray for ¬everyone’s dream.’”

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Na who count am?

You mean more than 5% of the whole population was present? Interesting

SalC:
Na who count am?

Government officials in the Philippines.