Storm lashes pope, pilgrims at youth festival

Breitbart.com 08/21/2011 06:45

A violent storm lashed Pope Benedict XVI and around one million pilgrims at an open-air service in Madrid, forcing him to cut short his speech and drenching the faithful who had waited for hours in blistering heat.

As the heavens opened during World Youth Day celebrations Saturday night, Benedict's skullcap was swept off and an assistant tried to shelter the 84-year-old pontiff with a large white umbrella.

The pope, his white hair blown into disarray, gripped a copy of his sodden speech, the pages and his vestments flapping in the wind.

A sea of pilgrims, by some reports more than a million, tried to take shelter under large white and yellow umbrellas at the vast esplanade -- the size of 48 football fields -- at the Cuatro Vientos (Four Winds) airbase outside Madrid.

Others danced in the rain, but the vast majority with no shelter just got wet.

When the rain eased some 20 minutes later, the pope declared to cheers: "Thank you for your joy and endurance. Your strength is greater than the rain.

"The Lord with the rain has given us many blessings. In this too you are an example."

The pope then left the stage to change and returned wearing a golden mitre, draped in a golden cloak and clutching a golden crucifix before resuming his speech.

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