Medellin, Colombia
The turnout at the third stop of the pope’s five-day visit to this Andean country followed similarly crowded religious services in Bogota that attracted 1 million and in Villavicencio that drew 400,000, indicating that Pope Francis’ mega-celebrity status only seems to grow.
The faithful began arriving a day before the Mass began, many huddling in plastic rain ponchos. By 7 a.m. Saturday, the airport and its 1.5-mile runway was a solid mass of humanity, and officials shut the gates. As many as 50,000 waited in line, hoping to be allowed in.
“It’s a unique moment that we won’t see again,” said Judy Cruz, a translator from the Amazon River port town of Leticia, her disappointment evident as she stood in line. “For us Catholics, he is the representative of God on Earth.”
Others described their need to be present for the Mass less in terms of the pope’s status atop the 1.2-billion member church and more because of his personal charisma and concern for the world’s underclasses.
“You believe him because it comes from the spiritual, not the political aspect,” said Jorge Ramirez, a Medellin fruit distributor. “You feel a closeness to him because of his humility and his genuine concern for the poor, the handicapped and the disadvantaged,” said Wilson Afanador, a metallurgical engineer from Bucaramanga, as he waited in line to enter the airport grounds.
Arriving at the airport 45 minutes late from Bogota because of rains and heavy cloud cover, Pope Francis mounted his popemobile and zig-zagged his way through the enormous throngs to afford a glance to as many as possible. Ecstatic screaming crowds waved white cloths in gestures of peace.
The pope urged his massive audience Saturday at Olaya Herrera Airport to seek spiritual rebirth through reconciliation. His urgings seem to resonate in a country exhausted by decades of civil conflict but wary of terms of a peace deal signed last year with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that many think is too generous.
In choosing Medellin as one of only four cities on his five-day Colombia tour, the pope highlighted what a different kind of rebirth can accomplish. Once the murder capital of the world and home to notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar and his global cocaine empire, the city of 3.7 million has become a beacon of Latin American urban renewal.
To be sure, tourists still flock to “Pablo Tours” to see where Escobar lived, was killed in a police shootout in 1993 and subsequently was buried. Two decades after his death, his life and criminal enterprise still inspire Hollywood movies, including two films starring Tom Cruise and Javier Bardem premiering this month.