Pope winds down tour with Mexican ceremony

WITH more than a million Mexicans celebrating in the streets in a show of affection, a frail Pope John Paul II wound up a gruelling pilgrimage yesterday with the beatification of two Mexican Indians.

The 82-year-old pope was stooped and weary on the last leg of a trip that began in Canada for World Youth Day and continued to Guatemala and Mexico. But he delivered all his scheduled speeches, tried to walk some steps and spoke in a clearer voice than he has for months. He departed yesterday afternoon for Rome.

The beatifications of Juan Bautista and Jacinto de los Angeles, Zapotec Indians, came a day after the pope made Juan Diego the first Indian saint in the Americas. Beatification is the last formal step before possible sainthood.