Popeacabana beach
Three million pack the Rio shoreline to hear Pope say Mass on his last day in Brazil
MILLIONS of worshippers turned Copacabana beach into a huge open-air cathedral as Pope Francis celebrated the final Mass of his visit to Brazil yesterday.
The 4km of white sand was taken up by the crowds which the Vatican estimated at more than three million.
A series of giant screens allowed them to see the distant Pope in close-up. Many had spent a chilly all- night vigil on the crescent- shaped beach in Rio de Janeiro. As dawn broke yesterday, nuns could be seen mixing with bikini- clad young women at the water’s edge.
Pope Francis, addressing Catholic pilgrims at the vigil before returning for the Mass, urged them not to be ‘part-time Christians’.
To cheers, he went on: ‘Jesus offers us something bigger than the World Cup!’ Some members of the crowd threw football shirts into the pontiff ’s open- sided car as he drove by.
The 76-year-old Argentinian-born Pope, the first from Latin America, returned to Rome last night after his week-long trip.
It was his first overseas visit since he became pontiff in March after Pope Benedict stepped down.