Pilgrims crowd field for Mass with Pope

A frail Pope John Paul II celebrated an open-air Mass today as several hundred thousand pilgrims, many in wheelchairs, crowded onto a field near Lourdes, a French shrine to the Virgin Mary associated with miraculous cures of the sick.

Breathing heavily and gasping, the Pope struggled to read the text of his homily but raised his voice to express “special affection” for the sick.