Pope John Paul yesterday bade farewell to some 40,000 young pilgrims, 2,000 of whom came from Ireland, saying he had been profoundly moved by last week's World Youth Day celebrations. The pilgrims were among the 2 million young people at the prayer vigil and Mass at the Tor Vergata university campus last weekend. They were paying a final visit to the Vatican to attend the Pope's weekly audience in St Peter's Square.
"I will never forget the enthusiasm of those young people," the Pope said. The two-day rally at Tor Vergata was a personal triumph for the Pontiff, who beat time to the music on the arm of his chair. "I would have liked to embrace them all and express to each one the enthusiasm that links me to the young people of our time, to whom the Lord entrusts a great mission," the Pope told the crowd. "May the message of World Youth Day be received and followed up by those who took part in it and by their contemporaries. To all of you I would like to repeat: be proud of the mission which the Lord has entrusted to you," he added.
The citizens of Rome were impressed by the discipline, joyfulness and faith of the 2 million young pilgrims.
The event even stimulated debate in political circles. Italian prime minister Mr Giuliano Amato invited his allies to follow the Pope's example in communicating with the young. "He knows how to speak to the multitude because he expresses his message in a few words, which echo over the crowd, which make it react," Mr Amato said in a newspaper interview. "His words appeal to the principles that count."
Yesterday organisers said they had recovered money, identity documents, five cellular phones, numerous cameras and a return air ticket to Chicago among the debris left in Tor Vergata after the rally. Three sets of priests' vestments were also found on the vast, refuse-strewn site.