Pope draws huge crowd in Paris

More than 200,000 people turned out in Paris for Pope Benedict XVI’s outdoor Mass this morning – a jubilant outpouring of faith in a Roman Catholic country that has seen a sharp decline in churchgoing in recent years.

Altar boys in white cassocks snapped photos and parents lifted children out of strollers to catch a glimpse of the pontiff as he arrived in a popemobile at L’Esplanade des Invalides, a vast expanse of lawn not far from the Seine River.