MANILA // Pope Francis arrived in the Philippines on Thursday for a five-day trip in the Catholic Church’s passionate Asian heartland that is tipped to attract a world-record papal crowd.
Church bells tolled across the country as the charismatic pontiff flew into the capital of Manila after a successful trip to Sri Lanka.
Hundreds of children brought to greet him chanted on the tarmac: “Welcome Pope Francis” as his plane touched down.
Pope Francis has said his two-nation tour is aimed at adding momentum to already impressive growth for the Church in Asia, with its support in the Philippines the benchmark for the rest of the region.
Eighty per cent of the former Spanish colony’s 100 million people practise a famously fervent brand of Catholicism, and the pope is set to enjoy thunderously enthusiastic crowds throughout his stay.
“Every step he makes, every car ride he takes, every moment he stays with us is precious for us,” Archbishop Socrates Villegas, president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines, said.
Hoping for a first glimpse, hundreds of thousands gathered along the route the pope was scheduled to pass as he made his way to the Vatican’s embassy to rest overnight.
“It’s a blessing to see the pope. That’s why we’re here,” school teacher Jeannie Blesado, 35, said as she sat on the side the road more than six hours before the pope was due to arrive.
The high-point of his trip is expected to be an open-air mass on Sunday at a park in Manila, with organisers expecting six million people despite a forecast of rain and security concerns.
They say that if the crowd is as big as expected, it will surpass the previous record for a papal gathering of five million during a mass by John Paul II at the same venue in 1995.
Pope Francis, the fourth pontiff to visit the Philippines, is also due to visit communities devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan which killed or left missing 7,350 people in 2013.
On Saturday, he will deliver a mass to tens of thousands of people in Tacloban, one of the worst-hit cities in the central Philippines, and have lunch with 30 typhoon survivors.
He is expected to receive a state welcome at the presidential palace on Friday..
Authorities have expressed concerns over the pope’s security, where attempts have been made to kill visiting pontiffs twice before.
Nearly 40,000 soldiers and police have been deployed to protect Pope Francis in what Philippine military chief General Gregorio Catapang described as a “security nightmare”.
Potential stampedes from the swelling crowds, as well as the threat of militants or lone-wolf assailants are among the concerns.
On the first papal visit to the Philippines in 1970, Bolivian painter Benjamin Mendoza donned a fake priest’s cassock and swung a knife at Pope Paul VI as he arrived at Manila airport, wounding the pontiff.
One week before John Paul II’s 1995 visit, police uncovered a plot by foreign extremists to kill him by bombing his Manila motorcade route.
Philippine President Benigno Aquino made a nation-wide address this week to highlight the security threats for the pope and call on all Filipinos to help protect him.
“I ask you, do you want history to record that a tragedy involving the pope happened in the Philippines,” Ms Aquino said.
Adding to the concerns, the 78-year-old pontiff has insisted he will not travel in a bullet-proof “popemobile” during his big events so he can be closer to the faithful.
The pope flew out of Sri Lanka on Thursday morning, a day after one million people gathered to hear him give mass in what police said was the biggest public celebration ever for the capital of Colombo.
* Agence France-Presse