Pope ends record-setting Asia tour

Masses of cheering believers in the Philippines turned out to bid farewell to Pope Francis Jan. 19, a fitting end to a week in Asia that saw him draw record crowds and campaign relentlessly for the poor.
      
The pontiff visited Sri Lanka as well as the Philippines on his second trip to Asia in five months, seeking to promote the Catholic Church in one of its most important growth regions.
     
More than one million people gathered along his motorcade route in the Philippine capital of Manila on Monday morning for a final glimpse of Francis, the city's planning agency chief, Francis Tolentino, told AFP.
      
The 78-year-old pontiff showed no signs of fatigue from a gruelling week on the road, smiling and waving to the crowds from an open-air "popemobile" on the way to the airport.
      
President Benigno Aquino then led a red-carpet farewell on the tarmac, as children sang and danced, before the pope gave a final wave to the Philippines and boarded his plane to return home.          Sunday saw one of the highlights of his Asian journey, with six million people turning out in Manila as he celebrated mass -- a world record for a papal gathering.
      
The Philippines is famed as the Catholic Church's bastion in Asia, with 80 percent of the former Spanish colony's 100 million people following the faith.
      
But even the pope was stunned at the size of the crowd, which surpassed the previous world record of five million set during a mass by John Paul II at the same venue in 1995.
      
"I cannot fathom the faith of the simple people," Francis said, according to the archbishop of Manila, Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, who acted as the pontiff's chaperone during his five days in the Philippines.
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