Pope holds huge Mass in France

Pope Benedict XVI told pilgrims in the southern French town of Lourdes that love can be stronger than all the world's evil. The 81-year-old pontiff gave the homily during an open-air Sunday Mass at the highly-revered Roman Catholic shrine. Pope holds huge Mass in France Benedict is in Lourdes to mark the 150th anniversary of what many Roman Catholics believe was a vision of the Virgin Mary by a young local girl. On Saturday, he also celebrated an outdoor Mass in the capital, Paris. More than 200,000 pilgrims made the trip to Lourdes for Benedict's first papal Mass at the shrine. The pontiff is making a three-day pilgrimage to the sanctuary, which is visited each year by six million believers. Security has been tight, with more than 3,000 police officers drafted in to the area. After his arrival at the shrine, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Benedict prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle, also known as the Cave of Apparitions. The riverside site is where 14-year-old peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous told local clergy in 1858 the Virgin Mary had appeared to her. When he arrived on Saturday night, Benedict also drank water from a spring that believers say has miraculous healing powers. Saying Mass from under white canopies shaped like sails, the Pope told his listeners to be true to their faith because "it tells us that there is a love in this world that is stronger than death, stronger than our weakness and sins". He said: "The power of love is stronger than the evil which threatens us." Pope Benedict arrived in Paris on Friday for his first visit to France since becoming Pope in 2005. He was welcomed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he praised for promoting the role of religion in society. France staunchly upholds a 1905 law that enshrines the separation of Church and state, but Sarkozy has supported efforts to ease the country's strict secularism law. France is a Roman Catholic country but Sunday Mass attendance is now below 10 percent. Before his visit, a French newspaper poll showed that more than half of those questioned had a positive view of the Pope.

Pope holds huge Mass in France

Benedict is in Lourdes to mark the 150th anniversary of what many Roman Catholics believe was a vision of the Virgin Mary by a young local girl.

On Saturday, he also celebrated an outdoor Mass in the capital, Paris.

More than 200,000 pilgrims made the trip to Lourdes for Benedict's first papal Mass at the shrine.

The pontiff is making a three-day pilgrimage to the sanctuary, which is visited each year by six million believers.

Security has been tight, with more than 3,000 police officers drafted in to the area.

After his arrival at the shrine, in the foothills of the Pyrenees, Benedict prayed at the Grotto of Massabielle, also known as the Cave of Apparitions.

The riverside site is where 14-year-old peasant girl Bernadette Soubirous told local clergy in 1858 the Virgin Mary had appeared to her.

When he arrived on Saturday night, Benedict also drank water from a spring that believers say has miraculous healing powers.

Saying Mass from under white canopies shaped like sails, the Pope told his listeners to be true to their faith because "it tells us that there is a love in this world that is stronger than death, stronger than our weakness and sins".

He said: "The power of love is stronger than the evil which threatens us."

Pope Benedict arrived in Paris on Friday for his first visit to France since becoming Pope in 2005. He was welcomed by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, whom he praised for promoting the role of religion in society.

France staunchly upholds a 1905 law that enshrines the separation of Church and state, but Sarkozy has supported efforts to ease the country's strict secularism law.

France is a Roman Catholic country but Sunday Mass attendance is now below 10 percent.

Before his visit, a French newspaper poll showed that more than half of those questioned had a positive view of the Pope.