The Mass marked this year’s 1,050th anniversary of Poland’s acceptance of the Roman Catholic faith, a move that eventually set it apart culturally from Orthodox nations in the region.
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After lunch in Krakow, Francis joined some disabled young people aboard an electric tram, painted in the Vatican’s yellow and white colors, for the ride to the park where the youth rally was held.
In the evening, local church organizers in Krakow said another 500,000 faithful, young people from all around the world cheered Francis at a pep rally on a meadow in the southern city.
The Daily Mail wrote that Pope Francis is in relatively good health, despite the long days of ceremonies, audiences and meetings. He went on to celebrate Mass as planned.
Pope Francis has fallen during a visit to Czestochowa, Poland.
Pope Francis fell to the ground Thursday while conducting an open-air mass in front of thousands in Czestochowa, Poland and was helped back up. President Andrzej Duda and members of the conservative government – with whom Walesa is at odds – were present.
“Having stressed the pope’s infallibility under St. John Paul II, discouraging and critical of public debate on papal pronouncements”, the church “can hardly now question the actions of his successor”.
Pope Francis is urging today’s Poles to stay united, as their nation is divided over such issues as how to view refugees and migrants, especially those who aren’t Christians.
The shrine is home to the Black Madonna, a Byzantine icon from sometime between the sixth and ninth centuries and brought to Poland some 600 years ago.
He prayed before tens of thousands of people that Poles would have “the desire to leave behind all past wrongs and wounds, and to build fellowship for all, without ever yielding to the temptation to withdraw or to domineer”.
Worry about bad weather prompted a last-minute change in his day’s travel plans, with the pontiff opting to take a auto instead of a military helicopter to Czestochowa.
Friday morning Francis will pay respects at the Nazi concentration camps at Auschwitz and Birkenau, following which he is scheduled to lead young pilgrims in the Way of the Cross, a Catholic meditation on images of Jesus’ crucifixion.
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Cardinal Marcharski had replaced Cardinal Karol Wojtyla in the post after the latter was elected pontiff and became John Paul II in 1978. He has been touring the country’s holiest shrines in Czestochowa.
